Rita Devine received her B.S. in animal science from the University of Delaware in 1983. Following several years of research in a tropical medicine laboratory, she entered graduate school at Georgetown University and received her Ph.D. in developmental biology in 1993 where she studied sperm protein expression during development and embryogenesis.
Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. April R. Robbins of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases where she studied cytoskeletal proteins involved in the movement of lysosomes, Dr. Devine joined NINDS as a fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Tom Reese. As she was looking to advance in her career, Dr. Devine was offered a position by Dr. Story Landis which was a combination of lab research and administrative tasks. After a year of juggling bench work and administrative duties, Dr. Devine decided to dedicate her expertise solely to administration. She occupied the position of Assistant Director for Science Administration to the NINDS Scientific Director since accepting Dr. Landis’s offer in 1997. Her responsibilities included tracking NINDS space, overseeing physical facilities, including the Porter Neuroscience Research Center, core scientific facilities, planning lab renovations, and handling other space-related issues. In addition, she was the program coordinator for the NINDS Summer Internship Program. NINDS hosts approximately 70-80 high school, college, and graduate students each year summer. In 2024 Dr. Devine joined the NINDS HEAL NCREW team contributing to the efforts to stem opioid use disorder in Native American communities.