NHGRI Smithsonian Exhibition Leadership Bios

Brief biographies of National Human Genome Research Institute leaders for the collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's launch of Genome: Unlocking Life's Code. Full biographies are available on www.genome.gov at the URLs below. To get a high resolution photo, click on each picture.

For more information, call the NHGRI Communications Office, 301-402-0911

Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D.

Eric D. Green, M.D., Ph.D. is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the largest organization in the world solely dedicated to genomic research. Immediately prior to this appointment in 2009, he was the scientific director of NHGRI, a position he had held since 2002, and director of the NIH Intramural Sequencing Center. For two decades, Dr. Green has been at the forefront of efforts to map, sequence and understand the genomes of eukaryotes - organisms with membrane-bound nuclei, including significant, start-to-finish involvement in the Human Genome Project. He earned an M.D. and Ph.D. in cell biology from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a B.S. in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. For more information: http://www.genome.gov/Staff/Green

Laura Rodriguez, Ph.D.

Laura Lyman Rodriguez, Ph.D., is the director of the NHGRI Division of Policy, Communications, and Education. She works to develop and implement policy for research initiatives at NHGRI, design communication and outreach strategies to engage the public in genomic science and prepare health care professionals for the integration of genomic medicine into clinical care. Dr. Rodriguez received her B.A. with honors in biology from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., and a Ph.D. in cell biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She served as administrative director at the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research after graduating in 1996, and it was through this work - helping to establish that institute and its laboratories - that Dr. Rodriguez became interested in clinical research policy. For more information: http://www.genome.gov/Staff/Rodriguez

Vence Bonham, Jr., J.D.

Vence L. Bonham, Jr., J.D., is the chief of the NHGRI Education and Community Involvement Branch (ECIB) and associate investigator in the Social and Behavioral Research Branch. As chief of ECIB, Mr. Bonham is responsible for structuring how NHGRI reaches out to and engages various communities, including those who are underserved in biomedical research participation. In addition to his work in the Social and Behavioral Research Branch, Mr. Bonham serves as the Senior Advisor on Genomics and Health Disparities. He received his B.A. from Michigan State University in Lansing and his J.D. from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in Columbus. For more information: http://www.genome.gov/Staff/Bonham

Carla Easter, Ph.D.

Carla Easter, Ph.D., is the deputy chief of the NHGRI Education and Community Involvement Branch. Previously, she was director of outreach for Washington University School of Medicine's Genome Sequencing Center in St. Louis. Dr. Easter conducted post-doctoral research at Washington University School of Medicine on the virulence factors associated with Streptococcus pyogenes. Dr. Easter earned her B.S. degree in microbiology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her Ph.D. in biology with an emphasis on molecular genetics from the University of California, San Diego. For more information: http://www.genome.gov/Staff/Easter

Lawrence Brody, Ph.D.

Lawrence C. Brody, Ph.D., is the chief and senior Investigator in the NHGRI Genome Technology Branch. Dr. Brody studies the inherited components of human disease. As head of the Molecular Pathogenesis Section, he is interested in studying genetic mutations that lead to perturbations in normal metabolic pathways and that cause disorders such as cancer and birth defects. Dr. Brody's laboratory was among the first to report that women carrying BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations have a higher risk of developing both breast and ovarian cancer than women without such mutations. Dr. Brody completed his undergraduate degree in biology at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. He received a Ph.D. in human genetics from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. For more information: http://www.genome.gov/Staff/Brody

Posted: June 12, 2013

Last updated: June 12, 2013