Introducing James Anderson, MD, PhD former resident, fellow, and faculty member of Yale Department of Internal Medicine. Anderson completed his residency in 1986, and held several faculty positions within Internal Medicine, including Chief of the Section of Digestive Diseases from 1996-2002.
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Where are you now?
NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives Office of the Director National Institutes of Health and Senior Investigator Cell Biology and Physiology Center National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. I live in Bethesda, MD and Guilford, CT.
What do you love about your career?
To apply my past experience, including at Yale, in a leadership role to achieve the NIH mission: NIH’s mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.
How did Yale prepare you for your career?
It provided me with broad training and experience in clinical medicine, teaching and research and introduced me to the challenges and rewards of a leadership role. Yale also provided me with innumerable role models.
What surprised you most about your field/area of expertise?
That the pace of discovery in biomedical research and the application of that knowledge to improve human health continues to accelerate.
What have been your biggest challenges and accomplishments since the beginning of the pandemic?
Working with the NIH Director to develop the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) public-private partnership led by the National Institutes of Health and coordinated by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health to develop a research strategy for prioritizing and speeding development of the most promising COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Also, working in virtual space to continue providing executive leadership for the activities of a diverse group of staff, currently composed of ~300 Federal employees and contract professionals with a total FY2020 budget of >$1B plus ~$3B for HIV/AIDS research. Developing and issuing Funding Opportunities Announcements for a wide range of research responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The DIM spotlight is a feature that is part of the DIM Digest, highlighting former alumni, trainees, and faculty of the Department of Internal Medicine.