Profile

As Director of the National Center on Sleep Disorder Research (NCSDR), Marishka K. Brown, Ph.D., leads the science of sleep and chronobiology into innovative discoveries that improve health. NCSDR, located within the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), is the nexus of NIH sleep and circadian research activities for a network that includes professional associations, public stakeholders, and federal agencies. Dr. Brown?s leadership and experience in partnership building helps sustain and expand this network, bringing the benefits of NIH?s scientific research into medicine and public health. Dr. Brown started her NIH career as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy fellow in the Office of Strategic Coordination, located within the NIH Office of the Director. Brown earned her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, with an emphasis in Pharmacology and Neuroscience, from the University of Maryland-Baltimore, and afterwards pursued a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, studying the role of the unfolded protein response in age-related sleep changes.