Beth Jaworski, Ph.D.

Social and Behavioral Sciences Administrator
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research

Beth Jaworski, Ph.D., joined the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a social and behavioral sciences administrator in September 2021. In this role, she supports the OBSSR mission to enhance the impact of health-related behavioral and social sciences research, coordinate and integrate these sciences within the larger NIH research enterprise, and communicate health-related behavioral and social sciences research findings. Beth earned her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Prior to joining OBSSR, she served as the mobile user experience (UX) lead at the Veteran Affairs’ National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Dissemination and Training Division, where she split her time between creating and researching public mental health apps for PTSD and related conditions. Dr. Jaworski’s research interests are focused on how the social and behavioral sciences can be leveraged to design and implement impactful and engaging digital health interventions. She is especially interested in mixed-methods approaches that center health equity and inclusion, take social context into account, and explore innovative ways to deliver and integrate health information across a range of settings.

Valerie Maholmes, Ph.D., CAS

Chief
Pediatric Trauma and Critical Illness Branch
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Valerie Maholmes, Ph.D., CAS, is the chief of the Pediatric Trauma and Critical Illness Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). In this capacity, she supports research and training in trauma, injury, and critical illness across the continuum of care. She serves on numerous National Institutes of Health and federal interagency working groups to further the mission and goals of the branch.

Prior to joining NICHD, Dr. Maholmes was a faculty member at the Yale School of Medicine in the Child Study Center, where she served in numerous capacities, including Director of research and policy for the School Development Program. In this role, she provided an array of educational, clinical, and technical support services to schools in low-income neighborhoods and communities around the country to promote child health and well-being. In 1999, she was named the Irving B. Harris Assistant Professor of Child Psychiatry.

In 2003, Dr. Maholmes received the Executive Branch Science Policy Fellowship, sponsored by the Society for Research in Child Development and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Maholmes completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Montclair State University in New Jersey and her doctoral degree at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She also earned a sixth-year degree from Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. She is the author of numerous publications, including commentaries, scientific and review articles, book chapters, and monographs.

Lisa Begg, Dr.P.H., RN

Senior Research Program Officer
Office of Research on Women’s Health
Office of the Director
National Institutes of Health

Lisa Begg, Dr.P.H., RN, is a senior research program officer for the Office of Research on Women’s Health within the Office of the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Over her career, Dr. Begg has worked as a senior scientist, administrator, and educator within the federal government, academia, and clinical and research settings. Since joining NIH in 1998, she has developed, implemented, and managed several large, complex NIH extramural research programs. She initially served as the chief of the NCI Cancer Training Branch, overseeing a budget of $110 million per year while implementing a broad strategic plan for research training and career development. Later, she joined the Office of Research on Women’s Health, working across the NIH institutes and centers to develop and enhance a variety of initiatives in women’s health and sex differences research, including several NIH-wide and federal-wide research initiatives. Dr. Begg oversees the BIRCWH—Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health—program, an institutional career development grant program. The BIRCWH program was originally created in 2000 and continues to provide career development to junior faculty who have recently completed clinical training or postdoctoral fellowships, and who will be engaged in interdisciplinary basic, translational, behavioral, clinical, and/or health services research relevant to the health of women and, where appropriate, the use of both sexes to better understand the influence of sex as a biological variable on health and disease.

While working in academia, Dr. Begg created a large breast cancer research program with support from several extramural research grants and contracts. As faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, she taught graduate students in the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) and the School of Nursing. She held faculty positions in the GSPH, the School of Nursing, and the School of Medicine. Earlier in her career, she founded the Oncology Nursing Society, which now has over 35,000 members domestically and worldwide and provides nursing research support second only to the NIH’s National Institute of Nursing Research. Dr. Begg holds degrees in epidemiology and nursing—a Dr.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh; an M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles; an M.S. in nursing from the University of California, San Francisco; and a B.S.N. from Boston College.

Dara Blachman-Demner, Ph.D.

Health Scientist Administrator
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
Office of the Director
National Institutes of Health

Dara Blachman-Demner, Ph.D., is a health scientist administrator in the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and serves as the lead science officer for the Community Firearm Violence Prevention Network. Prior to joining OBSSR, Dr. Blachman-Demner served as a social science analyst at the National Institute of Justice, where her research portfolio included bullying, teen dating violence, child maltreatment, and developmental perspectives on violence and victimization. She oversaw national evaluations of the Attorney General’s Defending Childhood Initiative and the Office for Victims of Crime’s Linking Systems of Care for Children and Youth state demonstration projects and co-coordinated the Federal Interagency Workgroup on Teen Dating Violence. At OBSSR, in addition to leading NIH-wide firearm violence prevention efforts, Dr. Blachman-Demner co-leads the NIH-wide Violence Research Working Group, which has supported the development of initiatives related to community violence prevention, including addressing violence in health care settings and mechanistic understandings of aggression. In addition, she co-leads efforts in dissemination and implementation science, time-sensitive and policy-relevant research opportunities, and behavioral and social science contributions to structural racism and health disparities. In all her efforts, Dr. Blachman-Demner remains focused on advancing the science of promotion of positive health and wellness outcomes among youth from traditionally underserved communities. Dr. Blachman-Demner, a licensed psychologist, received her B.A. from Duke University and her Ph.D. in clinical/community psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Alyssa Dolge, M.P.H.

Public Health Analyst
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
Office of the Director
National Institutes of Health

Alyssa Dolge, M.P.H., is a public health analyst in the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In this role, Ms. Dolge manages and executes the OBSSR budget and serves as the contracts lead. In addition, she coordinates OBSSR’s co-funding program to support behavioral and social sciences research across NIH, manages many of OBSSR’s operational activities, and serves on planning committees for the annual NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Festival and other office-supported activities. Prior to joining OBSSR, Ms. Dolge spent 14 years at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. During her time at NCI, she led budget, contracts, and communications efforts in the Applied Research Program and supported the formation of the Healthcare Delivery Research Program (HDRP), which was established in 2015. She was a member of the HDRP leadership team and managed program operations while also serving as the administrative program director on two large cooperative agreement grants. Ms. Dolge received her M.P.H. and B.S. degrees from the University of Michigan.

Robert Freeman, Ph.D.

Deputy Director
Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
National Institutes of Health

Robert Freeman, Ph.D., is the Deputy Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research at the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). At NIAAA, Dr. Freeman has overseen research portfolios in the epidemiology and prevention of alcohol-related violence, HIV/AIDS, suicide, and social media. He is a member of several federal panels devoted to violence prevention and has been the guest editor of several volumes of research devoted to violence prevention and HIV/AIDS issues. He also is the lead author of Handbook for Conducting Drug Abuse Research With Hispanic Populations (Praeger Publishers, 2002); has authored or co-authored approximately 30 scientific papers in the fields of HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, and violence prevention; and has been a reviewer for the Journal of Urban Health, AIDS Care, Violence Against Women, Journal of Adolescent Health, International Journal of STD & AIDS, and U.S. National HIV Prevention Conference. Dr. Freeman received his Ph.D. in urban sociology from Fordham University in 1994.

Leah Gilbert, M.D., M.S.P.H.

Medical Officer
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Institutes of Health

Leah Gilbert, M.D., M.S.P.H., earned her medical degree, Master of Science in Public Health in Maternal and Child Health, and bachelor’s degree in psychology at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Gilbert has a long history of research and activism in the prevention of violence against women and children, both domestically and globally. After training as an emergency medicine physician, she joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2012 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer. After completing the EIS program, she served as a medical officer and subject-matter expert in intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, and adverse childhood experiences for the Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Dr. Gilbert’s work at the CDC primarily focused on implementing the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey and the global Violence Against Children Surveys. After spending 10 years at the CDC, she joined the National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development as a program officer. Her portfolio within the Pediatric Trauma and Critical Illness Branch focuses on all forms of violence affecting children.

Anna Kharmats, Ph.D.

Health Science Policy Analyst
Office of Disease Prevention
Office of the Director National Institutes of Health

Anna Kharmats, Ph.D., is a health science policy analyst in the Office of Disease Prevention (ODP). Dr. Kharmats provides project management and analytical support to the Advancing Prevention Research for Health Equity (ADVANCE) initiative. ADVANCE seeks to strengthen research testing preventative interventions that address leading causes of death in populations experiencing health disparities.

Prior to joining ODP, Dr. Kharmats’ research focused on obesity and cardiovascular disease prevention, health disparities, food security, and geospatial food access. Dr. Kharmats has experience in all phases of the research process related to the design and evaluation of public health interventions, including quantitative and qualitative process and outcomes evaluation.

Dr. Kharmats earned a Bachelor of Science in human development and family studies and Master of Arts in developmental psychology from Cornell University. Subsequently, she served a year in the AmeriCorps VISTA program helping a mental health department of a federally qualified community health center transition to the use of electronic medical records. Dr. Kharmats completed her doctoral training in social and behavioral interventions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and postdoctoral training in behavioral and cardiovascular health research at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in the Department of Population Health and the Institute for Excellence in Health Equity.

Lizette Rivera-Arnold, M.P.A.

Project Manager
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
Office of the Director
National Institutes of Health

Lizette Rivera-Arnold, M.P.A., is a project manager in the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health. Ms. Rivera-Arnold manages various high-priority projects for the office by engaging key stakeholders, coordinating project timelines, and ensuring process efficiencies. Prior to joining OBSSR, Ms. Rivera-Arnold spent her career serving as a project manager for national public health initiatives, where she provided organizational management and deepened her subject-matter expertise in health equity, community programs, and public administration. She has worked with impactful community organizations and government programs, including the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Community Services’ Tribal Block Grant, the National Hispanic Medical Association, Families USA, and the HHS Office of Minority Health. Ms. Rivera-Arnold earned her B.A. in sociology at George Mason University, her M.P.A. in public administration from The University of Baltimore, and her project management certification through the Project Management Institute. She has dedicated her career to working with community-focused public health and health equity initiatives that directly impact the community.