Cristina currently serves as the Chief of Staff for the NINDS Director. She joined the NINDS as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) in the Office of Science Policy & Planning in 2021 where she served as the legislative liaison and provided key support to the Clinical Trials Networks Evaluation Working Group of the NANDS Council. Prior to joining NINDS she completed the first year of her PMF appointment at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where she analyzed and developed payment policies for new technologies used in the inpatient hospital setting, including a policy to pay for new COVID-19 treatments authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She was also a research analyst for President Obama’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues in which she focused primarily on neuroethical issues arising from advances in neuroscience research and technology development. Cristina earned her doctorate in the History of Health Sciences from the University of California, San Francisco in 2020 and a master’s degree in Neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego.