NIGMS Hires Two New Senior Staffers

NIGMS recently filled two vacancies on its senior staff.

Dr. Erica Brown is deputy director of the Division of Extramural Activities. She helps develop and oversee grant policies and procedures and assists NIGMS officials in formulating institute programs and objectives. 

Brown first came to NIH in 2003 as a postdoctoral fellow at NIAID. She then worked as a scientific review officer at NIAID, ran the NIH AREA Program, and, just prior to joining NIGMS, served as director of the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts. 

Brown earned her B.S. in biochemistry from Elizabethtown College and her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Stephanie Older is new chief of the Office of Communications and Public Liaison. She will determine the best ways for the institute to communicate with its audiences, which include the public, the scientific community, students and teachers, the media and policymakers. She oversees the office’s content, including online and print resources and social media products; advises NIGMS staff on communications strategies; and fosters relationships with scientific societies, media outlets and other stakeholder groups. 

Older comes to NIGMS from NIDA’s Office of Science Policy and Communications, where she most recently served as deputy chief of the Public Information and Liaison Branch. She is trained both in communications (she earned a B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School of Communications) and in law (her J.D. is from the University of Baltimore School of Law). 

Prior to joining NIH, she worked as a media liaison for the National Breast Cancer Coalition and as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Administrative Law Judges, U.S. Department of Labor.