Team: Strategic Planning, Evaluation, and Communications (SPEC)

Functional Area: Communication and Outreach; Media Requests; Program Evaluation and Analysis; Program Strategic Planning; Science Policy; Social Media; Website Content

Programs: All Common Fund Programs

Dr. Rachel Britt is currently a Health Specialist and Communications Director in the Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC). She helps to ensure awareness and maximum impact of NIH Common Fund programs through communication and evaluation. Dr. Britt joined OSC in 2013 as Science & Technology Policy Fellow through the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Prior to her fellowship, she studied DNA repair processes in B-lymphocytes of the human immune system as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Southern California from 2010-2013. She began her studies of DNA repair as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 2010.

Team: Strategic Planning, Evaluation, and Communications (SPEC)

Functional Area: Communication and Outreach; Program Evaluation and Analysis

Programs: All Common Fund Programs

Dr. Kaitlyn Browning joined the Office of Strategic Coordination as a Scientific Program Analyst in April 2024. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Furman University in 2018 and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Vanderbilt University in 2023, where she studied how interactions between DNA replication and transcription in bacterial pathogens may perpetuate antimicrobial resistance. While at Vanderbilt, Kaitlyn implemented scientific communication strategies and generated outreach materials as an intern for the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Infection. She was also named an inaugural Howard Garrison Advocacy Fellow by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in 2023.

Team: Strategic Planning, Evaluation, and Communications (SPEC)

Functional Area: Communication and Outreach; Program Evaluation and Analysis; Program Strategic Planning; Website Content

Programs: Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST); Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans (MoTrPAC); Transformative High Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy (CryoEM)

Dr. Andy Burnim joined the Office of Strategic Coordination as a postdoctoral fellow on detail in April 2024 and as a Health Specialist in August 2024. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Cornell University in 2023, where he utilized X-ray scattering techniques and bioinformatics to investigate the function and evolution of protein allostery within the enzyme family of ribonucleotide reductase. During his time at Cornell, Andy received the Bauer Scholarship Award for excellence in science communication. Following his doctoral studies, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the NIH, where he continued bioinformatic research on enzymes relevant to human health.

Team: Division of Other Transactions Management (DOTM)

Functional Area: Other Transactions

Programs: Common Fund Data Ecosystem(CFDE); Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS)

Alexandria Burns joined the Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC) within the Division of Other Transactions Management (DOTM) as an Other Transaction Agreement Specialist in November 2022. Prior to joining DOTM, Alexandria served as a Grants Management Specialist for HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing where she managed Native American housing programs. Prior to that, she served as a Transportation Program Specialist and Program Analyst at the USDOT’s Federal Transit Administration where she managed and analyzed transit grant programs and coordinated oversight reviews. Alexandria brings over 9 years of federal government grants management experience. Alexandria received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Governors State University and Master in Public Administration (MPA) from Walden University.

Team: Office Management Team

Functional Area: Office Management

Programs: Management Analysis; Office-wide Engagement; Workforce Planning & Development

Brittney Cardwell is a Management Analyst at The Common Fund located in the Office of the Director. Brittney has worked at NIH for five years, and continues to learn, grow, and lead. She began her federal career at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as an Extramural Support Assistant. She next applied to and joined the Management Intern Program (MI) where she explored different offices across NIH, made meaningful connections, and contributed to several activities and working groups. Upon completion of the MI Program, Brittney joined the Office Management Team where she focuses on HR, DEIA, travel, and provides overall support to updating systems and SOPs.

Team: Operations Team

Functional Area: Award Management and Tracking; Budget and Reporting; Program Evaluation and Analysis

Programs: Diversity Program Consortium (DPC): Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce; Glycoscience; Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC)

Tony Casco joined OSC in January 2015 as a program analyst contractor, assisting with the management and implementation of Common Fund programs. Mr. Casco has served NIH in a variety of capacities since he first joined the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) as an intern in 2004. After completing his bachelor's degree in economics from Boston College in 2008, Mr. Casco returned to NINDS to serve under the assistant director for science administration. During that time, he helped run the NINDS Summer Internship Program and earned his Certificate of Accounting. He transitioned to National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) as a budget analyst and then had a brief tenure at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) within the Office of Planning and Operations Support before joining OSC. In his decade-plus service to NIH, Mr. Casco has contributed to critical systems programs including QlikView - a data visualization tool that has since been adopted by multiple institutes. He received an NIH 2014 Director's Award for his contributions to the QlikView data visualization administration team.

Team: Re-Engineering the Biomedical Workforce (RRE)

Functional Area: Program Evaluation and Analysis; Program Management

Programs: Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS)

Dr. Alicia Cavanaugh joined the Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC) as a Program Analyst in November 2023. Prior to joining NIH, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at McGill University as a member of the Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities Consortium working on questions of multi-dimensional poverty and inequality in Ghana, Canada, Bangladesh, and China. She earned her B.A. in Geography and M.Sc. in Environmental Science & Policy from Clark University. She earned her Ph.D. in Economic Geography from McGill University using econometrics to study the causes and consequences of income inequality in US metropolitan areas.

Team: Office Management Team

Functional Area: Office Management

Programs: All Common Fund Programs

Renee is a contractor with Rose Li & Associates. From 2016 to 2021, Renee worked as an Executive Assistant with American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). Prior to her time at ASBMB, she worked for ten years supporting Americans United for Separation of Church and State. She has a Master of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary and a Bachelors from the University of Southern California.

Team: Transformational Science and Discovery (TSD)

Functional Area: Program Management

Programs: Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP); Somatic Mosaicism Across Human Tissues (SMaHT); Transformative High Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy (CryoEM)

Dr. Richard Conroy joined the Office of Strategic Coordination in 2017. Prior to joining the Office, Dr. Conroy was the director of the Division of Applied Science and Technology at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), where he oversaw the institute’s portfolio of programs in biomedical imaging. While at NIBIB, he also served as a coordinator for the Common Fund Single Cell Analysis and 4D Nucleome Programs. Dr. Conroy received his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews and M.B.A. from the University of Maryland University College.

Team: Re-Engineering the Biomedical Workforce (RRE)

Functional Area: Program Management

Programs: Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS)

Dr. Maurice Davis joined the Office of Strategic Coordination in October 2024 as Program Leader for the Common Fund Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) program. He comes to OSC from the NICHD’s Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch as a health scientist administrator, where he was responsible for a research portfolio in psychosocial factors associated with birth outcomes, weight gain and obesity issues during pregnancy, paternal involvement, birth outcomes, and pregnancy in women with disabilities. He joined NICHD in 2002, with responsibilities in the NIH-DC Initiative to Reduce Infant Mortality in Minority Populations. This research network ran for 20 years with a funding level totaling more than $75 million.  As part of NIH’s Implementing a Maternal Health and Pregnancy Outcomes for Everyone (IMPROVE) initiative, Dr. Davis led the Connecting the Community for Maternal Health Challenge (CCMH) competition to encourage community-based and advocacy organizations in the United States to develop the infrastructure and capabilities necessary to conduct maternal health research. Dr. Davis earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology, counseling, and health from Limestone College; his master’s degree in public administration and health services administration from Grambling State University; and his Doctor of Health Administration from the Herbert H. & Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions at Central Michigan University.

Team: Office Management Team

Functional Area: Office Management

Programs: Administrative & Budgetary Management; All Common Fund Programs; Management Analysis; Office-wide Engagement; Workforce Planning & Development

Lisa Debnam began her NIH career in the Clinical Center, Office of the Director, Office of the Chief Financial Officer in 2009. She served as Senior Program Manager in the Office of Management Analysis and Reporting (OMAR); with oversight of the Executive Information System (EIS); an on-line business intelligence tool conducting and distributing analysis on hospital utilization, cost and patient quality measures. In August 2022, she joined the Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC) as the Office Management (OM) Team Lead. She received her Bachelor’s in Business Administration from North Carolina A&T State University. Prior to joining NIH, she worked in Federal Systems for Verizon Communications.