National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis S. Collins has selected Dr. Marie A. Bernard as NIH’s next Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity (COSWD). She will lead NIH’s effort to promote diversity, inclusiveness, and equity throughout the biomedical research enterprise. Dr. Bernard has served as the acting COSWD since October 2020, after the retirement of Dr. Hannah A. Valantine, who served as NIH’s first-ever COSWD. Dr. Bernard has also served as the deputy director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) since October 2008.
Dr. Bernard has played key leadership roles in a broad variety of NIH activities to further diversity, including serving as a co-chair of the UNITE initiative, and leading the development of the NIA Health Disparities Research Framework, which guides NIA research in this area. She also directed and supervised the NIA Office of Special Populations, which leads health disparities research and training for scientists from diverse backgrounds within NIA.
She is a founding member of the Diversity Working Group and NIH Equity Committee, and co-chair of the NIH Inclusion Governance Committee, which oversees inclusion in clinical research by sex/gender, race/ethnicity, and age.
At NIA, Dr. Bernard served as its senior geriatrician and principal advisor to the NIA director. Her research is focused on nutrition and function in older populations, specifically underrepresented minority populations. She has published and lectured extensively in this area, as well as served on national committees, including as chair of the Clinical Medicine Section of the Gerontological Society of America, chair of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Research Advisory Committee, board member of the American Geriatrics Society, president of the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education, and president of the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs.
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