Anindita Ray, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral visiting fellow in the Neurodegenerative Disease Research Unit at NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), where she studies the genetics of Lewy body dementia and other dementia-related disorders. Anindita received her Ph.D. from University of Calcutta, India, during which she investigated the genetics of a rare skin condition called Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome at the Indian Statistical Institute. In her role as an outreach liaison for the NIH Fellows Committee (FELCOM), she writes profiles of IRP postdoctoral fellows for the “I Am Intramural” blog. Outside the lab, she can be found reading, hiking, or discovering murals in the city.
Brandon Levy is a Health Communications Specialist for the NIH’s Intramural Research Program, where he works to increase the IRP’s public profile and ensure IRP scientists get the recognition they deserve. He particularly enjoys writing about the cutting-edge research performed at NIH but also produces videos and content for social media. Before joining the IRP, he worked as a science writer in NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and as a postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) fellow in NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), spending his days putting people inside giant magnets and sending magnetic waves into their brains to shed light on the mysteries of learning and memory. When he’s not hunched over a computer keyboard, Brandon enjoys singing in his acapella group, reading, honing his skills as an amateur chef, and over-obsessing about college basketball.
Devon Valera is a Pathways Intern in the Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, where she works closely with the curator and collections manager to maintain, preserve, and interpret the biomedical object collection. She is currently a master’s candidate in the George Washington University Museum Studies graduate program, where she specializes in collections management.
Melissa Glim, M.P.H., is a science writer and healthcare communications professional working with NIH’s Intramural Research Program to promote the innovative research being done at the NIH’s 27 Institutes and Centers and the scientists who are making it happen. Melissa has written about topics from Alzheimer’s disease to women’s health, covering basic science to patient education to policy and advocacy.
She supports a variety of clients from government, non-profit, and industry in strategic communications planning and implementation, coalition and partnership building, stakeholder education and outreach, and health and science writing and materials development. She has developed and led grassroots programs for Hadassah and the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, spoken on stem cell research and cancer survivorship advocacy at numerous conferences, created a web-based advocacy training program, and contributed a chapter to the Oncology Nursing Society’s textbook, Cancer Rehabilitation and Survivorship: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Personalized Care. Melissa has won three National Health Information awards for her articles. She received her Master of Public Health in Community Health Education from Hunter College School of Public Health and her Bachelor of Science in Science Communication from Cornell University.
In her spare time, Melissa loves making hats and jewelry, swing dancing, and writing the occasional children’s book, although most of the time, she’s waiting upon her beloved fox terrier, Tilly.
Alex Szatmary, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Ralph Nossal at the NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Alex uses mathematical models to study how cells get to places in the body, in particular how endothelial cells direct neutrophils to inflammation sites and how migrating cells can coordinate their motion by generating chemical gradients. He teaches Survey of Biomedical Physics through FAES (external link) and facilitates a writing group. He is a coffee snob, an avid podcast fan, and a reader of postmodern fiction.
Alison Jane Martingano, Ph.D., is a social psychologist specializing in empathy and communication. Her postdoctoral research in the Social and Behavioral Research Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is focused on how to effectively communicate genomic concepts and improve empathy in physician-patient interactions. She is also a passionate educator and science communicator. In her role as outreach liaison for the NIH Fellows Committee (FELCOM), she writes profiles of postdoctoral researchers investigating the mysteries of human biology in NIH labs.
Andy Baxevanis, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), where his research focuses on the use of phylogenetic and comparative genomic techniques to study developmental proteins that play a fundamental role in the specification of body plan, pattern formation, and cell fate determination during metazoan development. In addition, Dr. Baxevanis is the Assistant Director for Computational Biology in the NIH Office of Intramural Research (OIR) (external link), where he has responsibility for addressing a wide range of bioinformatic and computational issues of importance to the NIH Intramural Research Program. He is currently leading a number of strategic planning initiatives aimed at improving the IRP’s computational infrastructure and high-performance computing capabilities, in an effort to meet the ever-growing scientific computing needs of all IRP investigators.
Angie Abraham, M.P.H., M.S., is a health communications fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) within the Office of Communications and Public Liaison and the Surveillance Research Program under the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. Angie received her masters degree in public health from California State University, Fresno, and a masters of science in regulatory affairs for drugs, biologics, and medical devices from Northeastern University. She is interested in new media as a lens for communicating health research.
Ashleigh LoVette is a Health Communications Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She is part of a team within the NCI Office of Communications and Public Liaison working to visually communicate the story of cancer research. Ashleigh received her master’s degree in health and risk communication from Michigan State University and enjoys using diverse mediums to engage others in conversations around health and science.
In 2011, I began meeting people at the NIH Intramural Research Program with stories to share — scientists, clinicians, patients, and administrators. My first day involved voting on competing designs for this irp.nih.gov website, with several awesome humans who generously shared their mentorship over the years. Working with our team and colleagues around the NIH, we help people explore IRP research and what it means for human health.
This page was last updated on Friday, January 14, 2022
