Berkson Named Director of NICHD Office
Laura Berkson has been named director of NICHD’s Office of Legislation, Public Policy and Ethics. The office supports the institute’s functions related to legislative analysis, liaison with stakeholder organizations and societies, institute partnerships, and controlled correspondence. It also manages NICHD’s ethics and committee management programs.
Berkson joins NICHD from the NIH Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis, where she has been a senior legislative analyst since 2014.
In that capacity, she served as a liaison to Congress, providing information to legislators’ offices on NIH research and programs, analyzing pending legislation and preparing the NIH director for hearings and meetings with members of Congress. She began her NIH career in 2012 as a presidential management fellow and completed rotations at NICHD and the U.S. House of Representatives’ committee on energy and commerce.
Berkson received her bachelor of arts degree in health: science, society and policy from Brandeis University. She went on to earn her juris doctor degree from Hofstra University School of Law, where she was a health law and policy fellow.