Biographical Sketch: Laurie Stepanek, Ph.D.

Laurie Stepanek, Ph.D., is a program director in the Division of Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity. She manages the Bridges to the Baccalaureate (B2B) and Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) programs, as well as Individual Predoctoral Fellowships to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (F31). As part of the NIH Diversity Program Consortium​, she manages grants in the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) program. She also manages research grants focused on the genetics and molecular mechanisms underlying behavior in the Division of Genetics and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology.

Prior to joining NIGMS, Stepanek was a senior professorial lecturer at American University in Washington, DC. She earned her B.S. in marine biology from Texas A&M University and her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Miami. Stepanek then studied vocal learning in songbirds as a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco, and was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation.

To contact ​Stepanek, send email to laurie.stepanek@nih.gov.

If you’re a reporter wishing to interview Stepanek, contact the NIGMS Communications and Public Liaison Branch.