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NIMH names new deputy director
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The NIMH recently announced Shelli Avenevoli, PhD, as the deputy director of the institute; she previously served as acting deputy director.
“It is incredibly helpful — and a great pleasure — to have someone with Dr. Avenevoli’s insight and experience in the deputy role during a period of transition for me and for NIMH,” Joshua Gordon, MD, MPH, director of the NIMH, said in a press release.
As acting deputy director, Avenevoli helped to revise and implement the NIMH’s Strategic Plan and the institute’s process for evaluating and approving funding opportunity announcements.
Avenevoli began working with the NIH in 2001, serving as a staff scientist with the NIMH intramural research program. In this role, she co-investigated the National Comorbidity Survey—Adolescent Study, which gathered information about the prevalence and trajectories of mental disorders among children and adolescents.
In 2005, she joined the NIMH’s extramural program as chief of the developmental trajectories of mental disorders branch. In this role, Avenevoli contributed to the reorientation of the NIMH’s translational neurodevelopmental research portfolio toward emphasizing etiology, brain development and neurobiological function.
She has served as the NIMH representative to planning committees for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Study and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.