NIH Division Director Visits, Praises UAMS

By Nate Hinkel

Betsy Wilder, Ph.D., director of the NIH’s Office of Strategic Coordination, spent Oct. 25 at UAMS touring and meeting with researchers at

Betsy Wilder, Ph.D., director of the NIH’s Office of Strategic Coordination (left) visited campus and was hosted by Jean McSweeney, Ph.D., R.N., associate dean for research at the UAMS College of Nursing (right).

Betsy Wilder, Ph.D., director of the NIH’s Office of Strategic Coordination (left) visited campus and was hosted by Jean McSweeney, Ph.D., R.N., associate dean for research at the UAMS College of Nursing (right).

several institutes and centers on campus. She finished the day with a lecture, “Common Fund Programs: Catalytic Resources for Biomedical Research,” at Walton Auditorium in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

“Everyone here should be proud to be working at a place like UAMS, which has seen tremendous growth and is a very impressive campus,” said Wilder, an Arkansas native who earned a biology degree at Hendrix College in Conway. “You should know that UAMS is very well thought of around the NIH and carries a very strong reputation as a place that’s doing innovative research and medicine.”

Speaking to a crowd of about 150, Wilder spoke about NIH programs and initiatives in place to speed impactful biomedical research from laboratories and desktops to patients in need.

“Having someone of Dr. Wilder’s experience on campus is an outstanding honor for all of us at UAMS,” said Jean McSweeney, Ph.D., R.N., associate dean for research at the UAMS College of Nursing, who serves on the NIH’s Council of Councils with Wilder and was chosen to host her visit. “Researchers campuswide share the goal of getting valuable research to the bedside as quickly as possible, and we all benefitted from discussing the most innovative and recent ways to help accomplish this goal.”

Wilder earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Hendrix College, while earning her postdoctoral degree in molecular and cell biology from Northwestern University. She did postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School in developmental genetics and served on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology.

She has held a position at the NIH since 2002 where she directed extramural programs in developmental biology, injury and repair. She participates in multiple efforts across the NIH designed to facilitate collaborations, including acting as coordinator of the NIH Roadmap Interdisciplinary Research Teams Working Group and co-chairing the NIH Multiple Principal Investigator Policy Implementation Committee. She also participated in the earliest efforts to develop an operating framework for the NIH Roadmap, helping to establish guidelines for the administration of these cross-cutting collaborative initiatives.

In her role as director of the Office of Strategic Coordination, she is extending these activities to implement the broader mission of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives.