Dr. Tracy Waldeck Named Director of NIMH Division of Extramural Activities
• Institute Update
Recently, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) selected Tracy Waldeck, Ph.D., as director of the Institute’s Division of Extramural Activities (DEA).
As DEA director, Dr. Waldeck oversees and provides leadership and advice to DEA’s Extramural Policy, Scientific Review, and Grants Management branches. She also helps facilitate communication between DEA and other NIMH and NIH offices and divisions.
In her role, Dr. Waldeck hopes to strengthen existing DEA partnerships, assist DEA’s collaboration with other divisions and offices at NIMH, and ensure that the three branches she oversees embark on projects that contribute to furthering the scientific research and mission of NIMH. She also aims to streamline review and grant management procedures, create efficiencies when possible, and guide and implement policy from the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Waldeck began her career at NIMH in 2002 as a staff psychologist in the NIMH Intramural Research Program, and joined DEA in 2005 as a Scientific Review Officer. She remained a key member of DEA until 2016, when she briefly left government service to serve as deputy director for the Association for Psychological Science. She returned to NIH in 2018 to direct the Office of Extramural Policy and Review for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Her career highlights include providing input during the Enhancing Peer Review efforts of 2007, adapting to rapid changes during the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and coordinating and conducting rapid-paced grant reviews for the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term℠ (HEAL) Initiative and the recent Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative .
Dr. Waldeck holds a Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia, Athens, and completed a predoctoral internship in the Clinical Neuropsychology Track at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, New York. In 1999, she earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia. In 2001, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.