Jane M. Simoni, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, NIH
Director, Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)

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Jane M. Simoni, Ph.D., is the Associate Director for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). She joined NIH on July 30, 2023, to lead OBSSR’s efforts to advance and coordinate behavioral and social sciences research at NIH, working closely with NIH institutes and centers.

Dr. Simoni has more than 30 years of experience in research focused on health disparities and resilience among groups that have been socially marginalized, including people with HIV and other chronic illnesses and Latinx, LGBTQIA+, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Her intervention research has examined behavioral aspects of chronic illness, using mixed methods and clinical trials to evaluate such strategies as peer support, medical record alerts, provider training and counseling, and mobile health technologies to promote treatment engagement and improve health outcomes. Her work has used cutting-edge behavioral and social science methods and theory to help create and implement health promotion and disease prevention programs.

A clinical psychologist, Dr. Simoni joined NIH from the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, where she was a professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology. She was the founding Director of the UW Behavioral Research Center for HIV (BIRCH) and co-directed the UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research.

Dr. Simoni earned her undergraduate degree at Princeton and her Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles. She also completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Southern California and Columbia University. A fellow in four divisions of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Simoni was a frequent grant reviewer and chair for NIH study sections.

Dr. Simoni has led more than 24 research projects, including NIH-funded studies in New York City, Seattle, the U.S.–Mexico border region, Beijing, Shanghai, Haiti, and Kenya. She has authored more than 300 publications, and two of her medication adherence–promotion strategies (which involved peer support and electronic reminders) are included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Compendium of Evidence-Based Interventions and Best Practices for HIV Prevention.

Dr. Simoni has collaborated on research and training awards on HIV, mental health, substance use, trauma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and pediatric overweight treatment in the United States and globally. She also has trained a diverse and interdisciplinary group of students and early career investigators. She has been a mentor on more than 50 training awards, including as a sponsor for individual trainees and as part of the leadership or mentoring faculty for NIH-funded research education programs.