DBRW Staff

Ericka Boone, Ph.D., Director
Dr. Ericka Boone is the Director of the NIH Division of Biomedical Research Workforce (DBRW). In this role, Dr. Boone provides leadership on the development, implementation and evaluation of policies and programs to train, sustain and enhance the diversity of the future of the biomedical research workforce. Dr. Boone also served as the Director of the NIH Division of Loan Repayment. In this that role, Dr. Boone was responsible for administering and providing leadership for the NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) as well as representing NIH on matters related to the operations, policy development and evaluation of the LRPs. Prior to this position, Dr. Boone served as a Health Scientist Administrator in the Office of Science Policy and Communications at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Before coming to NIH, Dr. Boone conducted research at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Emory University. Dr. Boone’s academic background includes a B.A. in Biology from Talladega College and a Ph.D. in Biobehavioral Health from The Pennsylvania State University.

Teraya Donaldson, M.S., Ph.D., Health Science Administrator

Teraya Donaldson, M.S., Ph.D., is currently a Health Scientist Administrator in the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce (DBRW) in the Office of Extramural Research (OER). Dr. Donaldson serves in the role of research training policy officer, providing leadership and guidance regarding the development and administration of extramural research training and career development programs and policies at NIH.

Dr. Donaldson earned her doctorate from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Microbiology investigating malarial chemotherapeutic targets. After completing a postdoctorate in biophysics at Oberlin College and serving as visiting faculty fellow at University of Richmond, Dr. Donaldson led graduate and KL2 training initiatives as the Assistant Director of Education for the Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). In that capacity, she was faculty for the Center and administrative liaison for students, faculty, scholars, and other participants in educational programs in CCTR. Additionally, Dr. Donaldson was the graduate director for the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) R25 award where she provided mentoring and guidance for predoctoral students.

As an AAAS S&T fellow in Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) from 2018-2020, she served as the executive secretary for Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers and developed training and workforce initiatives including the Prize for Enhancing Faculty Gender Diversity. Previously Dr. Donaldson was a health science policy analyst in the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and a Health Scientist Administrator in ORWH.

Tracy Dowtin, Staff Assistant
Ms. Tracy Dowtin provides administrative, technical and project management support for DBRW. Ms. Dowtin ensures the smooth executive functioning of the office by maintaining operational efficiency in record keeping, initiates or recommends action to correct problems, improve programs, synthesizes data into reports, briefings and presentations. Ms. Dowtin is also an expert at navigating the complex federal rules and regulations concerning contracts and the logistical arrangements as required for federal travel, meetings, conferences and webinars. She is also an integral member of standing committees, including the Training Advisory Committee (TAC) Diversity Subcommittee, the Early-Stage Investigator Committee, the Extramural Project Management Committee and Employee Engagement Committee (EEC). Ms. Dowtin is currently pursuing/completing her Bachelor’s degree in General Sciences.

Lisa Evans, JD, Scientific Workforce Diversity Officer
Prior to coming to the NIH, Ms. Evans served as the External Compliance Manager for the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and as the lead Civil Rights Analyst on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Ms. Evans received her BA in Political Science and Black Studies from Amherst College, and her JD from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Charles Evans Hughes Fellow and an Earl Warren Legal Scholar. Ms. Evans entered the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), through the highly competitive Attorney General's Honors Program in 1994. She was a litigator in the Educational Opportunities Litigation Section for six years, brought the first linguistic access case in the Civil Rights Division, and worked on the trial team that integrated The Citadel, the formerly all-male military academy in South Carolina. Ms. Evans also represented DOJ on an Executive Branch task force on affirmative action in education and provided advice to sister agencies.

Lynn Morin, Program Policy and Evaluation Officer
Lynn Morin is the program policy and evaluation officer in the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce in the Office of Extramural Research. She serves to support policies and procedures regarding NIH research training and career development, and assists in the coordination of critical operation activities within the Division, including the expert review of funding opportunity announcements and development of guidance and operating procedures.  Lynn has served NIH for over 21 years in various roles including the de facto training director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and in 2021 was Acting Branch Director for the Customer Outreach and Education Branch (COED) in the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) where she was on detail from the Career Development and Workforce Gender Diversity (CDW) Section of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH).

*Mohor Sengupta, Contractor
Dr. Sengupta joined DBRW as a health science policy analyst (contractor) in January 2022. At DBRW, Mohor assists the team in responding to training mailbox inquiries and internal and external data calls regarding STEM education programs, investments, and activities supported by the NIH; conducts Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA)-related analyses and GPRA activities; and participates in the NIH Planning and Evaluation (P&E) Officers Committee and the Assessments Elements Library-Training (AEL-T) working group. She also supports the Transparency and Accountability Interagency Working Group (T&A-IWG), which assists Federal Agencies to report on Federally sponsored STEM education investments as part of the larger Federally mandated Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM). Prior to joining DBRW, Mohor has worked at the National Eye Institute/NIH and at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities/NIH. She obtained a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, India, and has conducted postdoctoral research in neuroscience at the National Eye Institute, NIH.