Yvonne T. Maddox, Ph.D.
Dr. Yvonne
Thompson Maddox is the deputy director of the National Institute of Child
Health and Human
Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), a position she
has held since January 1995. In this role, Dr. Maddox guides the organizations
and programs with the NICHD, advises the director on matters regarding
the internal affairs of the $1.2 billion Institute budget, and oversees
the extramural program that supports research on child development, developmental
biology, mental retardation, nutrition, AIDS, mental retardation, population
issues, reproductive biology, contraception, pregnancy, and medical rehabilitation.
From January 2000, to June 2002, Dr. Maddox also served as the acting
deputy director of the NIH.
Dr. Maddox received her B.S. in biology from Virginia Union University, Richmond, and her Ph.D. in physiology from Georgetown University. She was a National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow and an assistant professor of physiology in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown. She studied as a Visiting Scientist at the French Atomic Energy Commission, Saclay, France, and graduated from the Senior Managers in Government Program of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Throughout her academic and government career, Dr. Maddox has been a champion of issues related to women and children. She leads two teams of international scientists as part of a joint India-U.S. Partnership to improve reproductive health and maternal and child health in both countries; more recently, she helped develop a similar health partnership between the U. S. and several sub-Saharan African nations. As co-chair of NIH=s working group to develop the strategic plan to eliminate health disparities, Dr. Maddox heralded messages of awareness of and participation in medical research for affected communities to improve their health. She served as the acting director for the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research, and for the Prevention Research and International Programs, both at the NICHD. Dr. Maddox also served as co-chair of the Department of Health and Human Services initiative to reduce infant mortality in minority communities.
During her career at NIH, Dr. Maddox has received numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Distinguished and Meritorious Executive Rank Awards, the Public Health Service Special Recognition Award and the NIH Director=s Award. She was the 2002 inductee in the field of medicine to the HBCU Hall of Fame. In addition, Dr. Maddox is a member of the American Physiological Society and serves on several public service and academic boards, including the Center for Development and Population Activities Advisory Board and the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship Advisory Board. She has authored numerous scientific papers and review articles.
Dr. Maddox continues to lead new initiatives to fund research on innovative, high-priority studies of diverse populations, including those on reproductive health, population, and infant mortality, both in the United States and abroad.
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