Devon OSKVIG

Biography

Dr. Devon Oskvig is the Program Director of the Neurobiology of Pain Program in the Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience Branch of the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Dr. Oskvig currently represents the institute on a number of trans-NIH and trans-agency efforts including the NIH Pain Consortium,  the Healing to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) Preclinical and Translational Scientific Team,  the Common Fund Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures Working Group, and the VA Pain Research Working Group. Dr. Oskvig received a Ph.D. in Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience from Georgetown University and completed her post-doctoral training in the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, where she identified novel cellular and molecular mechanisms by which maternal infection alters the fetal environment with consequential effects on central nervous system function and behavior in rodent offspring.

Prior to joining NIA in August 2020, Dr. Oskvig was Scientific Review Officer at NIH’s Center for Scientific Review managing the review of developmental, aging, and lifespan grant applications from a broad range of cognitive and perceptual domains including attention, learning, memory, cognition, decision making, executive function, social cognition, spatial navigation, and interactions between functional systems (e.g., emotion and cognition). Prior to that, Dr. Oskvig was a military medical research consultant with a large government consulting firm. She provided program management and scientific expertise to several entities across the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in the psychological health, traumatic brain injury, and chronic pain space. She assessed the state of the science and conducted portfolio analyses; identified research gaps and informed research investments; and disseminated clinical best practices across the DoD and VA health care systems to improve the provision of care for Service members, Veterans, caregivers, and families.