Hannah Valantine

Hannah A. Valantine is the Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity at the United States National Institutes of Health.

Biography

Valantine was born in The Gambia and lived in Banjul as a child. When her father was selected as the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, she and her family moved to London. She studied biochemistry at Chelsea College, London University and graduated from medical school at St. George's Hospital Medical School in 1978.

Career

After medical school Valantine performed post-graduate work in cardiology at the Brompton Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital in London. After her residencies in the U.K., she became a fellow at Stanford and worked with Norman Shumway, a pioneer in the field of heart transplants. On taking this role, she cited the importance of mentorship and social engagement in developing the careers of young faculty She was selected in 2010 as one of six recipients of NIH Pathfinder Awards, which were intended for the study of women's underrepresentation in biomedical faculty positions in the United States.

Valantine describes her pursuit of innovation as the foundation of her professional career - innovation in heart transplant and innovation in efforts to diversify the biomedical research workforce.

NIH leadership

In 2014, NIH Director Francis Collins announced Valantine's appointment as NIH's first Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity, a new position whose entire focus is diversity in biomedicine.

Under Valantine's leadership, the racial gap in rates of NIH applications and awards to projects led by African-American researchers has been practically, and in some cases entirely, eliminated, with increases of up to 142% in some award areas. Similar trends are apparent for Hispanic/Latinx scientists. Valantine also developed the NIH Distinguished Scholars Program, which aims to increase diversity among tenure-track researchers in intramural research programs. This program reduces barriers to recruitment of cohorts of principal investigators from underrepresented groups in biomedical research such as people of color, individuals with disabilities, and women.

Valantine also leads the Laboratory of Transplantation Genomics at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, focusing on heart transplant rejection.