Commendations & Commencements

Shannon Givens joined NIDDK as a clinical trial specialist within the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases. Prior to her arrival at NIDDK, Givens worked as a scientific program manager under contract for the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Cancer Institute. Givens has a diverse background in clinical trial oversight, grant portfolio analysis, public health and epidemiology.

Dr. Holly Nicastro joined NIDDK as a program director in the Office of Nutrition Research, where she leads activities related to precision nutrition. Prior to joining NIDDK, Nicastro was a program director in the Clinical Applications and Prevention Branch at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, where she managed a grant portfolio of research projects related to human nutrition and adult obesity prevention clinical trials.

Dr. Ivonne Schulman joined NIDDK as program director for Translational and Clinical Studies of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) within the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases. Schulman was previously a professor of clinical medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She also was the fellowship director at the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute and medical director for a Davita Dialysis Unit at the University of Miami.

Dr. Terez Shea-Donohue joined NIDDK in August as a program director in the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, with a focus on projects relevant to integrated gastrointestinal physiology. She was previously a scientific review officer at the NIH Center for Scientific Review, where she ran panels related to NIDDK topics, and served at the University of Maryland School of Medicine where she was a tenured professor of medicine.

Dr. Katrina Serrano joined the NIDDK Office of Minority Health Research Coordination where she oversees a portfolio that aims to advance the science for the health of underrepresented populations and training of underrepresented investigators. She was previously a program officer in the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health.

NIDDK welcomed one new Advisory Council member:

Dr. Michael Snyder will serve on the Council’s Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases subcommittee. Snyder is the Stanford University W. Ascherman Professor and Chair in the Department of Genetics as well as the director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, also at Stanford.

Dr. G. Marius Clore, NIH Distinguished Investigator and section chief of the Protein Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Section in the NIDDK Laboratory of Chemical Physics, received the 2020 Biophysical Society Innovation Award. Clore is recognized for his seminal contributions to the development of nuclear magnetic resonance for determining three dimensional structures of macromolecules in solution and for detecting, characterizing and visualizing rare, transient, and invisible states of macromolecules that play a key role in macromolecular recognition, assembly and amyloid formation.

Dr. Paul Kimmel, NIDDK program director for the acute kidney injury program and kidney HIV/AIDS program, received the Belding H. Scribner Award from the American Society of Nephrology, which is presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the care of people with kidney disorders or have substantially influenced the nephrology clinical practice. Kimmel was recognized for his career contributions to nephrology practice, focusing on his research contributions to patient-centered issues, including depression, anxiety, poverty and adaption to chronic illness in people with kidney disease.

Dr. Peter Perrin, a program director in the NIDDK Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, received the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Research Service Award for work that has significantly advanced gastroenterological science and research. Perrin’s work on NIH-funded digestive diseases research has helped make progress toward alleviating digestive diseases and their associated suffering. At NIDDK, he has a large portfolio of grants that have high impact in digestive diseases, in topics including immunology, microbiology, infectious diseases and inflammatory bowel disease, and HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Lloyd M. Aiello, who served on multiple NIH leadership committees died in December. He was a leader for the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), among other studies, which established the importance of glucose control in reducing the risk of diabetic complications, like eye, kidney, and nerve disease, thus setting the standard for diabetes care used today. In addition to his role as a premier clinical researcher, Dr. Aiello was an ophthalmologist who focused on diabetic eye disease, serving as director of Joslin’s Beetham Eye Institute and headed the section on eye research at Joslin, both positions now held by his son, Dr. Lloyd Paul Aiello, the third generation in the family to serve these roles.