NINDS Celebrates Extraordinary Career, Service of Devine
For more than 27 years Dr. Rita Devine has dedicated her career to research—first by conducting research herself and then by providing opportunities and resources for others to pursue science careers.
“I’ve always been interested in biology and how things work in the body, particularly aspects of disease,” said Devine, assistant director for science administration in the Division of Intramural Research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). “In college, I studied animal science and found the disease process and the research into it fascinating.”
After graduating from the University of Delaware with an undergraduate degree in animal science, Devine spent several years conducting research in a tropical medicine laboratory. She then entered graduate school at Georgetown University, where she studied sperm protein expression during development and earned her doctorate in developmental biology.
She came to NIH as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, investigating cytoskeletal proteins involved in the movement of lysosomes. Devine later joined NINDS as a fellow in the Laboratory of Neurobiology, working on electron microscopy with Dr. Thomas Reese.
While there, she not only conducted research but also assumed other duties as well. One such task was to help organize a softball game—pitting NINDS’s intramural staff against its extramural staff—at the institute’s annual picnic. Devine’s unique ability to work with people both in the laboratory and on the field was noticed by then-NINDS Scientific Director Dr. Story Landis.
“I was drafted to coordinate the intramural softball team—known amusingly as ‘Intermural,’” Devine recalled. “Story noticed that I organized things well and asked if I would come work for her part-time, doing some administrative tasks while continuing my research work.”
After juggling bench work and administrative duties for a year, Devine chose to focus solely on administration, and in 1997 she became assistant director for science administration to the NINDS scientific director.
Her responsibilities included tracking NINDS space; overseeing physical facilities, including the Porter Neuroscience Research Center; planning lab renovations; and handling other space-related issues.
“Helping to solve strategic space-planning issues has been a real accomplishment,” she said. “Space is a bit of a complicated beast and so is budget, which often contributes strongly to the success of an investigator. So, playing a role in space and budget and making sure all the scientists had what they needed to succeed and solve the important questions to improve public health was very important. I took it very seriously.”
Devine’s diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) efforts created, expanded and enhanced NINDS’s Summer Internship Program (SIP) and training activities.
SIP is a unique opportunity for talented high school, undergraduate, graduate and medical students to receive high-quality hands-on training and mentoring in neuroscience research.
“Meeting the students and having a role in contributing to their success and interest in scientific endeavors has been most memorable,” she said.
In 2007, in her role as SIP coordinator, Devine was tasked by the NINDS director to include Native Americans in the program. She worked with institutions like Northern Arizona University and Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, expanding the program to include students on reservations.
Devine built relationships with a number of Native Americans tribes, high schools and racial and ethnic minority groups.
In fact, she visited reservations to meet with tribal councils, teachers and families to understand and alleviate their concerns about the program. She also worked with Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and the NIH Native American Council to arrange housing and host families to provide a safe and supportive residential environment for the students.
“Although the summer program can be as short as eight weeks, it can be pivotal to introducing and retaining youngsters in science,” Devine explained. “It’s not intense pressure but just enough pressure to get them to enjoy and understand and feel the goals and accomplishments that science offers. As in many underserved and underrepresented communities in science, Native American students have to overcome a great deal of adversity to gain the same opportunities of other students. Native communities are often lumped into one group and yet there are some 570 tribes in this country. Every tribe has its unique culture and aspect to it, so it takes work to understand what each community grapples with. In addition, not every Native or indigenous student comes from a reservation. There are many rural and urban youngsters that also need an opportunity.”
Among her other projects, Devine oversaw competitive fellowships for trainees and initiated a distance-learning program with Salish Kootenai College (SKC)—which included negotiating with the SKC administrative team to develop needed neuroscience courses and recruiting lecturers from the neuroscience community.
Devine also developed a STEM program for American Indian/Alaska Native high school students on reservations and a pilot program for STEM internships near the Yakama Reservation. Her collaboration with the NIH Office of General Counsel resulted in the creation of a program to prepare high school students for summer internships.
Upon completion of the two-year program, which takes place at universities on or near Native American reservations, the students progress to summer internships at NIH or at universities that provide basic or clinical research experience.
In addition, Devine applies her DEIA efforts to recruiting faculty and staff within DIR—ensuring that job opportunities are widely advertised and continuously seeking out creative strategies to build a community that is diverse and representative.
Throughout her career, she has been honored for her work, receiving an NIH Equal Opportunity Award in 2008 and an NIH Director’s Award in 2016 for increasing diversity in NINDS training programs and for her outreach efforts with Native American students.
In 2010, a subcommittee of the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council evaluated NINDS’s diversity efforts and concluded that SIP was a model for increasing diversity, both at NIH and elsewhere. Devine’s extraordinary outreach is credited with garnering the achievement—particularly her work with students and trainees from racial and ethnic minority groups to expose them to scientific careers as early as possible and even help them with career transitions after they leave NINDS.
Last year, Devine moved to part-time employment and currently focuses solely on DEIA efforts.