Courtney Ferrell Aklin, PhD, is the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research.
As NINR’s Deputy Director, Dr. Aklin works collaboratively across the NIH, the federal government, and other key interested parties and organizations to further advance NINR’s mission and objectives. She also serves as an ambassador and spokesperson for the Institute, communicating the NINR vision and facilitating nursing research progress by developing strategies and research objectives with the Director and the research community.
Dr. Aklin has over 15 years of leadership experience at NIH, including in the Office of the Director, NIH, and at several Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs), where she has brought strategic alignment and executive management of complex challenges to support NIH’s mission.
In her previous role as Acting Associate Deputy Director, NIH, Dr. Aklin led several NIH-wide, high-impact activities, including co-chairing the Implementing a Maternal Health and Pregnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) initiative, for which she helped to establish a coordinated research plan focused on increasing community engagement and addressing health disparities associated with maternal morbidity and mortality. She co-chaired the NIH Mental Health and Well-being Action Team and was an executive sponsor of the NIH Resilience Through Well-being Campaign. Dr. Aklin also co-led NIH’s COVID Intra-Action Review and the Intramural Research Program Budget and Reporting Initiative, efforts designed to assess information, synthesize available data, and move toward collaborative efforts to achieve necessary actions for more efficient procedures and policy.
Previously, Dr. Aklin served as Chief of Staff for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), where she developed and implemented strategic initiatives to fulfill the Institute’s mission while overseeing the management of its communications, outreach, and legislative activities. As a Program Director at the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), she designed and managed programs to augment emerging neuroscience research programs at universities and medical schools committed to increasing diversity in the biomedical workforce. At the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Dr. Aklin developed and managed a portfolio of grants focused on childhood anxiety disorders.
Dr. Aklin joined NIH in 2004 as an American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellow within NIMH. She has a background in community-engaged work and behavioral and social sciences research relating to health disparities and pediatric mental health. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.A. in business administration and psychology from the University of Richmond.