Anna E. Mazzucco, Ph.D.

Anna E. Mazzucco, Ph.D., is the Acting Associate Deputy Director, NIH.  Previously, Dr. Mazzucco served as the Strategic Advisor on NIH-Wide Activities within the Immediate Office of the Director, leading a range of activities including implementation of the NIH-wide Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility.  Previously, she served as the Deputy Director of the NIH’s Helping End Addiction Long-termÒ Initiative, coordinating a trans-agency initiative with a budget of $810M in FY22 to address the public health emergency of the opioid crisis and chronic pain.  Prior to joining the NIH HEAL Initiative, Dr. Mazzucco was Special Assistant to the NIH Principal Deputy Director and then Team Lead for the Associate Deputy Director. In these roles, she supported the development and launch of several high-priority NIH-wide research efforts, including the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) project, which aims to ensure that all Americans have access to COVID-19 testing, with a focus on communities most affected by the pandemic.   She also coordinated the launch of the NIH-wide research initiative INvestigation of Co-occurring conditions across the Lifespan to Understand Down syndromE (INCLUDE), which is addressing the critical health and quality-of-life needs for individuals with Down syndrome.  Prior to joining NIH as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Policy Fellow in 2015, she was Scientific Advisor at a non-profit organization in Washington D.C., focusing on policy and legislative issues related to biomedical research such as diversity in clinical research and innovation in drug development. Dr. Mazzucco obtained her Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard Medical School.