Appointment of Adrienne A. Hallett as the Associate Director for Legislative Policy and Analysis, NIH

It gives me great pleasure to announce the selection of Adrienne A. Hallett as the Associate Director for Legislative Policy and Analysis and the Director of the Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis (OLPA). She will join the NIH on Monday, May 4, 2015.

Ms. Hallett comes to the NIH with 14 years of experience on the staff of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations where she served most recently as Senior Policy Advisor. During her tenure she worked with Senator Harkin to conceptualize, draft, and promote the Accelerating Biomedical Research Act. She was charged with conducting government-wide oversight of the Ebola and other infectious diseases initiative enacted in 2014, and advised Senator Mikulski on biomedical research and health care across the government. Additionally, as Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, Ms. Hallett managed the staff responsible for negotiating the budgets of three cabinet agencies and 14 related agencies, boards, and Commissions. She helped prioritize funding for the NIH in a flat budget, and crafted and successfully negotiated an Ebola supplemental for HHS. In addition, she has worked closely with NIH senior leadership on a number of high impact science policy issues.

Adrienne brings a wealth of resources to the position, including broad contacts across all branches of government and in the private sector, skill in strategic management and negotiation, and complex policy development experience. I am confident that she has the perfect combination of talents needed to successfully lead this critical NIH function.

I want to recognize and thank OLPA Acting Director Lauren Higgins for her outstanding leadership of OLPA since July of 2014. Lauren will continue her important contributions to the NIH as she serves in her role as the OLPA Deputy Director.

Please join me in welcoming Adrienne to the NIH and offering her your full support.

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.