Professional Development Workshop Series

Norman Braveman, PhD: President
Braveman BioMed Consultants LLC
Dr. Norman S. Braveman retired at the end of 2008 from the NIH after more than 28 years of service. Dr. Braveman received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Miami University (Ohio) in Psychology and his Ph.D. from Washington State University in Psychobiology with a minor area of concentration in Quantitative Genetics. He joined the extramural scientific staff at the National Institutes of Health in 1980 after 10 years in academia as a teacher and researcher. His academic appointments were at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of Haifa (Israel) and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. While at NIH he also taught a graduate seminar in Psychoneuroimmunology at American University, a course in biostatistics at the Foundation For The Advancement of Education in the Sciences (the NIH graduate school), and an annual seminar in clinical trials design at the Summer Research Institute in Clinical Research at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has published more than 30 scientific articles, book chapters and abstracts and has made many invited presentations throughout the world.

In his years with the extramural arm of the NIH Dr. Braveman served as the Director of the Immunology and Endocrinology Program with the National Institute on Aging, was responsible for the peer review of investigator-initiated clinical trials with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, served in the capacity as Director of Planning and Evaluation for NIH with the Office of the Director of NIH, and between 1992 and his retirement in 2008, he served in various capacities with NIDCR including as Assistant Director for Extramural Programs, Associate Director for Clinical, Behavioral and Health Promotion Research, and as Assistant to the Director of NIDCR. Among Dr. Braveman's contributions to the NIDCR, he had major responsibility for issues relating to the health effects of dental amalgams. These included leadership for two large clinical trials investigating possible behavioral, neuropsychological and physiological effects of dental amalgams in children. He represented the Institute on the Mercury Subcommittee of the Environmental Health Policy Committee of the Public Health Service and later chaired an inter-agency committee on dental amalgam. Also, he represented the NIDCR and the National Institutes of Health at a World Health Organization Consultation on Dental Amalgams and Its Alternatives as well as at an international forum on oral health research in Jerusalem.

Dr. Braveman is now the President of Braveman BioMed Consultants, located in Rockville, MD where he provides consulting services for a variety of clients on topics related to the development of biomedical research programs.

Keith Crank, PhD
American Statistical Association
Dr. Keith Crank has a BS in mathematics education and an MS in mathematics from Michigan State University and a PhD in statistics from Purdue University. Prior to joining the ASA as research and graduate education manager, he was a program officer at the National Science Foundation, primarily in the probability program.

S. Sethu K. Reddy, MD MBA
Merck Research Laboratories
Dr. Sethu Reddy is Vice-President and Head of US- Medical Affairs for Merck & Co.. He joined Merck in 2006, having been past-Chairman of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Reddy earned his MD in 1980 at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He completed his fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at the U. of Toronto. His research fellowship in cellular and molecular physiology was conducted at Harvard Medical School/Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic, he was Associate Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Dalhousie University, Canada. He completed his MBA at Cleveland State University in 2002.

Dr. Reddy's research interests are primarily devoted to clinical endocrinology, including obesity and thyroid disorders, and the epidemiology of diabetes and its complications. He has authored and coauthored more than 140 articles, abstracts, and book chapters concerning these and related topics. He has presented numerous lectures about diabetes management, heart disease, obesity, thyroid disease, and other metabolic disorders at national and international events.

He conceived and developed the nationally recognized Annual Endocrinology Board Review Course since 1997.

Dr. Reddy has been actively involved in clinically relevant projects with AACE since 1996, including Coding & Reimbursement, Fellowship Training, Optimal Practice of Diabetes Task Force, Endocrine University Program, Socioeconomic Affair, Minority Health Affairs, Clinical Practice Guidelines, and Academic Affairs. He has been elected twice to the National Board of Directors of AACE. He has also been actively involved in corporate liaison activities with The Endocrine Society, American Diabetes Association and The Obesity Society.

He was also honored with the Florence Nightingale Award by Cleveland Clinic for Physician Collaboration and as Trustee of the Year in 2005 by the Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland. In 2009, he authored the Cleveland Clinic Guide to Diabetes (Kaplan Pub.) for the general public.

In 2007, he received the distinction of Mastership in the American College of Endocrinology.

Victoria McGovern, PhD
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Victoria McGovern, Ph.D., Senior Program Officer, runs the Institutional Program Unifying Population and Laboratory Based Sciences as well as the Fund's assistant professor-focused career development program in Infectious Diseases. She has long been involved in science policy efforts related to strengthening the scientific workforce, an interest she continues at BWF. Her scientific work centered around chromosome structure and infectious diseases, and she maintains a continuing interest in the functional analysis and structure of whole genomes, including by managing the Fund's investments in pathogen genomics and post-genomics. Victoria earned bachelor's degrees in Biology and in English Literature at Washington University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has taught courses ranging from biochemistry to bioinformatics at Birmingham Southern College, the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, and Davidson College. She is a member of the National Postdoctoral Association's advisory board and is the chair of Sigma Xi's committee on the public understanding of science. She joined the Fund in 1997.