Stephanie M. George, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A., was named Deputy Director of the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) in March 2024.
As Deputy Director, Dr. George advises the ODS Director on programmatic, personnel, administrative, and budgetary issues for the ODS mission. In addition, she serves as Vice Chair of the NIH Dietary Supplement Research Coordinating Committee and on other related committees and working groups.
Prior to joining ODS, Dr. George served at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) since 2019 as an epidemiologist and program director overseeing NIH’s largest investment in physical activity research, the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium. She also served on many NIH-wide working groups including those focused on nutrition research, dietary supplements, obesity, physical activity, medical rehabilitation, behavioral and social sciences, health disparities, social determinants of health, and health communication. Dr. George participated in the federal writing team for the 2023 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Midcourse Report: Implementation Strategies for Older Adults. She has provided subject matter expertise to both the NIH Community Engagement Alliance and the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations efforts.
Before her role at NIAMS, Dr. George worked as a senior epidemiologist in the NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) from 2015 to 2019. In that position, she fostered wide-ranging research collaborations to study preventive health topics, especially those related to physical activity, diet, and obesity. She also promoted the use of best available research methods and supported the development of better methods in prevention studies. She was one of the federal staff responsible for drafting the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. She also developed the NIH ODP Early-Stage Investigator Lecture.
In her career at NIH, she has received an HHS Distinguished Service Award, NIH Director’s Awards, NIAMS Director’s Awards, a DPCPSI Director’s Award, and an OD Honor Award.
Dr. George received her B.A. and M.A. in communication from the University of Maryland and her M.P.H. in chronic disease epidemiology and Ph.D. in epidemiology from Yale University.