Office of the Scientific Director
- Mary C. Dasso, PhD, Acting Scientific Director
- Sara K. King, Chief of Staff
- Jessica Rigby, Scientific Program Analyst
- Amaressa Abiodun, Administrative Support Specialist
- Olga Cherkasova, Administrative Support Specialist
The Office of the Scientific Director (OSD) is responsible for programmatic oversight, review, and administration of the Division of Intramural Research (DIR), NICHD. The Office has several key functions including:
- Serving our staff, investigators, administrators, trainees, and contractors to meet their needs and ensure that we are all working together to serve the mission of NICHD.
- Planning, coordinating, and directing the basic and clinical scientific research programs conducted within the DIR, all with the advice of the Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC; see below) and in consultation with the Institute’s Director and other offices.
- Providing oversight of scientific organization, setting of overarching research priorities, and allocation of resources.
- Coordinating the recruitment and review of principal investigators and other key staff.
- Providing oversight of scientific mentoring and training activities, and, as a high priority, ensuring that we provide state-of-the-art training in basic, translational, and clinical research for the next generation of scientific and clinical leaders.
- Encouraging the implementation of new technologies and the application of new techniques and treatments through clinical trials, and promoting research collaboration.
- Developing and maintaining the necessary scientific capability in the DIR to foster and guide an effective research and clinical program.
- Ensuring compliance with safety, ethics, and other legal and policy requirements.
- Providing clearance of manuscripts and other publications and ensuring the deposition of data and published manuscripts in appropriate public databases (e.g., PubMedCentral, Clinicaltrials.gov).
- Serving in an advisory role to the Institute Director and other senior leadership of the Institute and other institutes, offices, and centers across NIH.
- Actively participating in the governance of the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP).
- Contributing to the development and support of trans-NIH initiatives.
- Working closely with other intramural research programs across NIH to support scientific and other efforts across institutes.
To maintain the highest quality of research, principal investigators and other key staff of the DIR are evaluated by the BSC, which meets biannually on the first Friday of December and in June of each year. The BSC reviews site-visit reports, evaluations, and all other activities of the OSD. Each NICHD investigator is subject to a review at least once every four years, according to NIH policy (NIH Sourcebook Process for Reviewing NIH Intramural Science, https://oir.nih.gov/sourcebook/processes-reviewing-nih-intramural-science). To ensure the most effective use of public dollars toward high-quality, high-impact research, the Board is made up of accomplished senior extramural researchers. Membership of the BSC is listed at https://annualreport.nichd.nih.gov/bsc.html. Annually, the Scientific Director reports on the activities of the OSD, the reviews of our investigators and their accomplishments, and on all BSC recommendations to NICHD's National Advisory Child Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council (https://www.nichd.nih.gov/About/Advisory/Council).
