Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Patrick Kennedy lauded NIH objectives and praised social/behavioral science community at Capitol Hill reception

The social and behavioral science community spearheaded a formal but warm welcome for three of the new directors who oversee the mental health and alcohol/drug abuse research portfolios of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health), NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism), and NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) each have directors whose appointments began since fall 2002, and this spring presented an excellent opportunity for the science policy/advocacy community to welcome them all to Washington, DC.

At the Capitol Hill reception, ASA Executive Officer Sally T. Hillsman (center) conversed with the new NIH directors (left to right: Volkow, Li, Insel) and with APA CEO Norman Anderson (far right).

Hosting a well-attended Capitol Hill reception organized by the American Psychological Association, 17 behavioral and social science organizations, including ASA, brought science and congressional representatives together to greet Thomas Insel, director of NIMH, Ting-Kai Li, director of NIAAA, and Nora Volkow, director of NIDA. During the event, these new agency chiefs heard inspiring comments from a number of Members of Congress who mingled at the reception and from two who delivered formal remarks.

While Insel and Li had already been in their NIH positions for several months at the time of the reception (see Footnotes newsletter’s Sept./Oct. 2002 Public Affairs Update), Volkow, the most recent appointee, had taken her post full-time as recently as April (see Feb. 2003 Public Affairs Update in Footnotes).

The co-sponsoring organizations and APA collectively represent hundreds of thousands of scientists, healthcare providers, and patients, and with such high numbers behind them, the organizations aimed to help raise the visibility of the new directors, especially among key Members of Congress and their staff.

Senator Harkin (D-IA), the Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing NIH funding, commented on the important work these new NIH directors will manage. Harkin emphasized the value of translational research, an oft-repeated theme today, as NIH congressional advocates work to provide sufficient funding for the nation’s basic health research enterprise. Congressman Kennedy (D-RI), who serves on the corresponding House appropriations subcommittee, also delivered formal remarks. Rep. Kennedy, son of Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), drew on personal experience in his extended family to extol the value of substance abuse and mental health research. Kennedy echoed Harkin’s incantation that research must inform practice in the provision of services to patients.

The new directors had their turns at the podium to elucidate for the 150 attendees their respective visions for their institutes. Raynard Kington, the new Deputy Director of NIH (see p. 3 of March 2003 Footnotes), who had been the first Director of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, introduced each of the directors. One common theme in all three directors’ remarks was an implicit understanding of the challenges for facilitating new scientists’ entry into mental health and substance abuse research careers.