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: Division of Other Transactions Management (DOTM)

Functional Area: Other Transactions

Programs: Common Fund Data Ecosystem(CFDE); Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS); DPCPSI - Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS)

Yuping Burr joined the Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC)-Division of Other Transactions Management (DOTM) as an Other Transactions Agreement Specialist in August 2022. Prior to joining OSC, Yuping worked at Department of Commerce (DOC)/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as a Grants Management Specialist and Grants Officer. There she managed a complex portfolio of research programs to universities, non-profit entities and for-profit small businesses. Prior to working at NOAA, she worked more than ten years in non-profit and university settings in various capacities such as program manager, proposal specialist and grants specialist. She has been a Certified Research Administrator since 2011 and completed her Grants Management Certificate Program-Federal Track from Management Concepts in 2022. She received her master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of the District of Columbia.

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: Immediate Office of the Director (IMOD)

Functional Area: Legislative Contact; Program Strategic Planning; Science Policy

Programs: All Common Fund Programs

Dr. Stephanie Courchesne-Schlink earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University. Her research focused on neurotrophin signaling in the development of sensory and motor neurons, as well as pathological disease states that occur when neurotrophin signaling and downstream cellular responses are altered. Dr. Courchesne-Schlink was a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in the Office of Strategic Coordination from 2010-2011. In 2011, she joined the Office of Strategic Coordination as a Health Science Policy Analyst. From 2014 to 2019, Stephanie was the Team Leader for Policy, Planning, Evaluation, and Communication. In 2019, she became the Senior Advisor to the OSC Director.

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.

Team: Operations Team

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

Programs: Bridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI); Illuminating the Druggable Genome (IDG); Metabolomics; Common Fund Data Ecosystem(CFDE)

David Dzamashvili joined the Common Fund in the Office of Strategic Coordination as a program analyst contractor in February 2020. Prior to joining the Common Fund, Mr. Dzamashvili worked with The World Bank Group’s BPSPS (Budget, Performance Review and Strategic Planning). He brings years of experience in the financial industry. David received a Master’s in Financial Management and a Master’s in World Economy and International Relations.

Team: Catalytic Data Resources (CDR); Re-Engineering the Biomedical Workforce (RRE); Transformational Science and Discovery (TSD)

Functional Area: Other Transactions; Program Evaluation and Analysis; Program Management; Program Strategic Planning; Review Management; Science Policy

Programs: All Common Fund Programs for Other Transaction Activities; Bridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI); Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS); Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC)

Ms. Kristina Faulk joined the NIH in 2001 as a research assistant in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases. Her research focused on pathogenesis and immunogenicity of Hepatitis C and E viruses, and GB virus B. Prior to joining NIH, Ms. Faulk was a research assistant in DuPont’s Agricultural Biotechnology division working on insect and disease resistance of rice plants, and a contractor in DuPont Merck’s Pharmacokinetics unit, which focused on HIV therapeutics. Ms. Faulk received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Delaware and her certificate in technology transfer from the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences. She is currently pursuing dual master’s in biotechnology management and business administration through the University of Maryland University College. Ms. Faulk joined the Office of Strategic Coordination as a Health Specialist in 2013.

Team: Re-Engineering the Biomedical Workforce (RRE)

Functional Area: Program Management

Programs: Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS); Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity

Dr. Yvonne Owens Ferguson joined the Office of Strategic Coordination in 2021 as Program Leader with the Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity program. Previously, Dr. Ferguson served as a Scientific Review Officer (SRO) with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) where she facilitated the peer review of contracts and many complex, high-profile grant reviews. At the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), Dr. Ferguson served as the SRO for the Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (DIRH) Study Section from 2017-2019. Prior to joining NIH, Dr. Ferguson conducted large-scale regional and program evaluations as a senior global health research consultant with non-profits, governments and civil society organizations in the United States, Switzerland, and the Caribbean. Dr. Ferguson completed her post-doctoral training conducting community-engaged research as a Kellogg Health Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Ferguson received her Ph.D., with a certificate in International Development conducting research in sub-Saharan Africa, and received her MPH in Health Behavior, also from UNC-Chapel Hill.