Dr. Alison F. Davis works with both the Office of Pain Policy and Planning and the BRAIN Initiative as a contract science writer and communications strategy consultant. She has worked extensively with NIH since 1998, when she joined NIGMS as a staff writer. Since 2001, she has worked on a contract basis with most Institutes and Centers and the Office of the Director, where her writing and strategy informed NIH policy on several trans-NIH initiatives including peer review, scientific workforce diversity, data science, sex as a biological variable, and most recently, the NIH HEAL initiative. She also worked with past NIH Director Francis Collins to author "NIH: Turning Discovery into Health" and as a frequent author of NIH Director's Blog posts. She was commissioned by NIH to write “Always There,” a biography of NIH legend Dr. Ruth Kirschstein that was published in December 2011.
Alison has also worked as a speechwriter for many NIH senior leaders, and writes about a wide range of scientific and medical areas for multiple audiences. She earned a B.S. in biochemistry from Virginia Tech, a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Georgetown University, did postdoctoral research in developmental biology at Stanford University, then completed the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She lives with her husband on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where she enjoys playing the piano, running, and sailing the Chesapeake with her dogs and two adult sons when they’re in town.