Deborah Olster is Deputy Director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Previously, she was Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she maintained an active research program focused on the neuroendocrine control of reproduction, with an emphasis on reproductive behaviors. With support from the NIH and the National Science Foundation (NSF), she has investigated seasonal and pubertal transitions in reproductive function, sexual motivation, and reproductive dysfunction related to stress, obesity and under-nutrition, using a variety of animal models. She has also collaborated on research projects related to stress hormones and human behaviors, the regulation of food intake and body temperature in laboratory animals and color perception and seasonal sexual displays in Australian bowerbirds. Dr. Olster earned a PhD in Physiology from The University of Michigan, after which she did postdoctoral work in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and in the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She was an American Association for the Advancement of Science/NSF Science and Technology Policy Fellow in 2000-2001, where contributed to the development of NSF research programs in Cognitive Neuroscience and the Science of Learning. Since joining OBSSR in 2002, she has been active in several trans-NIH activities, including the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research and the Genes and Environment Initiative, developing programs at the intersection of the biological, behavioral and social sciences.