The National Center for Health Research (NCHR) is a nonprofit think tank that conducts, analyzes, and scrutinizes research on a range of health issues. We focus on the safety of medical products and consumer products, as well as the prevention strategies and treatments that are most effective for which types of patients and consumers. We do not accept funding from companies that make products that are the subject of our work. The key staff of the National Center for Health Research also work with NCHR’s largest program, which is the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund.
Diana Zuckerman, PhD, President
Diana Zuckerman received her Ph.D. in psychology from Ohio State University and was a post-doctoral fellow in epidemiology and public health at Yale Medical School. She started her career on the faculty of Vassar College and Yale University.
After a post-doctoral training at Yale Medical School, she took a position at Harvard directing a groundbreaking research study of college students. Dr. Zuckerman left her academic career to come to Washington, D.C. as a Congressional Science Fellow in a program run by the American Association of the Advancement of Science. After spending the year as a staff member in the House of Representatives, she spent the next ten years working as a Congressional staffer in the House and Senate and at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, working to improve federal health programs and policies for adults and children. She initiated highly influential Congressional hearings on a wide range of health issues, including cancer prevention and treatment and the safety of medical products.
Dr. Zuckerman served as a senior policy advisor in the Clinton White House, working for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. She subsequently served in leadership positions at numerous nonprofit organizations and has been in her current position at NCHR since 1999. She has testified before Congress, the Canadian Parliament, and numerous U.S. federal agencies, and been an invited speaker at national medical, public health, and legal conferences.
While in her current position, Dr. Zuckerman was a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics for several years. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA. She was previously on the Board of the Congressionally mandated Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, and the chair of the Maryland Women’s Health Promotion Council, appointed by the Governor of Maryland. She was the first non-physician to be elected to the Women in Medicine International Hall of Fame.
Dr. Zuckerman is the author of five books, several book chapters, dozens of articles in medical and academic journals, and in newspapers across the country. Her policy work has resulted in news coverage on all the major TV networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, public television, “60 Minutes,” “20/20,” “Voice of America,” National Public Radio, and in major U.S. print media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, USA Today, Detroit Free Press, New York Daily News, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and World Report, Forbes, Family Circle, New Yorker, Glamour, Self, as well as many other newspapers, magazines, and radio programs. She has also been interviewed on numerous documentaries in the U.S. and abroad, and two U.S. movies were based on her investigations.
Laura Lytle, Health Policy Director
Laura Lytle is our Health Policy Director. She works with Members of Congress and their staff by serving as a resource on the impact of federal health policies on the quality of care for all patients and consumers. Laura is our main point of contact for Capitol Hill as well as public health agencies such as FDA, CMS, and NIH.
Laura brings 25 years of non-partisan experience as a Congressional staff member, working in the Senate and House of Representatives. Most recently, she served as the Director of the Senate Press Gallery, a unique office that interacts with Senate leadership, personal staff, and committee staff as well as the journalists covering Congress. Laura previously served as the Director of Advocacy and Outreach for the Parkinson’s Action Network (Currently the Michael J. Fox Foundation) working on behalf of the Parkinson’s patient community on appropriations, NIH funding, and regenerative medical research. Laura is a graduate of Virginia Tech. She can be reached at lel@center4research.org.
Tess Robertson-Neel, MPH, Health Policy Fellow
Tess Robertson-Neel is our Health Policy Fellow. She monitors, tracks, and analyzes the activities of agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as Congressional proposals and legislation. She works closely with our Health Policy Director to educate Congress about ways to improve policies and programs and assists our Center’s President to keep NCHR running smoothly. She has a key role in NCHR’s social media communication of up-to-date and evidence-based health information and health policy strategies to patients, the media, policymakers, and the public. She also contributes content on the NCHR websites, and is editor of our two monthly Digests and biennial reports.
Tess completed her Master of Public Health degree at the University of Virginia with a concentration on policy, ethics, and law. She previously received her B.A. from UVA in Global Studies – Global Public Health with a double major in Spanish. Before joining NCHR, her research focused on the impact of PFAS, phthalates and other endocrine disrupting chemicals and she brings that expertise to NCHR. She also previously worked as a Communications and Advocacy Fellow with Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action where she researched health and climate policy and magnified the voices of health practitioners who are passionate about climate change. She can be contacted at trn@center4research.org
Hana Rahman, Summer 2024 Susan Wood Intern in Women’s Health
Hana Rahman is an MPH student at UCLA. As our first Susan Wood Intern in Women’s Health, she helps us communicate evidence-based health information and health policy strategies on a range of topics of importance to patients, the media, policymakers, and the public. Focusing on women’s health and the safety and effectiveness of medical products, she writes and updates articles for our websites, creates social media posts, and attends Congressional meetings and webinars to keep NCHR up to date on discussions around policies related to health and well-being.
Grace Drew, Summer 2024 Intern
Grace Drew is an MD/MPH candidate at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in biology, a minor in women’s and gender studies, and a certificate in creative writing. Grace is the president of Medical Students for Choice and service and outreach officer for the Ob/Gyn Student Association. Inspired by the work of public health scholars and sociologists, Grace is committed to learning how health policy, public health, and medicine can intersect to improve women’s healthcare in the United States. Her goals include being a strong advocate for her patients and for women’s health. Grace can be contacted at gd@center4research.org
Sunny Cui, Summer 2024 Intern
Summer 2023 Interns
- Jenny Niwa (University of Rochester, Jack Mitchell Policy Intern)
- Andrea Sun (University of Pennsylvania, Omega Logan Silva Intern)
- Avery Nork (Georgetown University, Janice Bilden Cancer Prevention Intern)
Fall 2022 Interns
- Belinda Gorsuch (Claremont McKenna College)
- Kobi Khong (Johns Hopkins University)
Summer 2022 Interns
- Shahmir Ali (Johns Hopkins University, Janice Bilden Cancer Prevention Intern)
- James S. Castro Argueta (George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Jack Mitchell Policy Intern)
- Angelica Estrada (UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Marcy Gross Intern)
Spring 2022 Interns
- Avni Patel (Cornell University, MPH, Omega Logan Silva Intern)
- Jackie Liu (University of Maryland, Research Communications, and Policy Intern)
Fall 2021 Interns
- Anna Adler (The George Washington University, Class of ’23, Majoring in Public Health)
- Annika Schmid (The George Washington University, Class of ’22, Majoring in Biophysics)
Summer 2021 Interns
- Edyth Dwyer (Brown University, MPA/MPH student concentrating in Global Health)
- Sophia Lee (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center ’24, MD Candidate)
- Alea Sabry (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Class of ’22, Majoring in Molecular & Cell Biology and Political Science)
Spring 2021 Interns
- Mariah Baker (The George Washington University, MPH student with a focus on Health Policy)
- Reagan Beyer (University of Wisconsin- Madison, Class of ’21, Majoring in Biochemistry and Political Science, with a certificate in Global Health)
- Katerina Kerska (University of Michigan, MPH student with a focus on Health Behavior and Health Education)
- Sasha Milbeck (University of Miami, Class of ’22, Majoring in Global Health, minors in Chemistry and Psychology)
Fall 2020 Interns
- Amanda Chu (Georgetown University, Class of ‘22, Majoring in Science, Technology, and International Affairs, minors in Spanish and Creative Writing)
- Carly West (The George Washington University, MPH student with a focus on Epidemiology and Disease Control)
- Cindy Min (University of Florida, MPH student with a focus on Epidemiology)
- Sasha Milbeck (University of Miami, Class of ’22, Majoring in Global Health, minors in Chemistry and Psychology)
Summer 2020 Interns
- Amanda Bisnath (University of Virginia ’21, Public Policy and Leadership, minor in Bioethics)
- Megan Peterson (Cornell University ‘21, Biology and Society, minoring in Health Policy and Law & Society)
- Elizabeth Sack (Duke University ’21, Global Health and International Comparative Studies, minor in Chemistry)
Spring 2020 Interns
- Nana Addo (George Washington University ’19, International Affairs, concentration in Global Public Health)
- Shaina Desai (University of California, Berkeley ’20, Public Health, concentration in Epidemiology)
- Seungyeon Lee (Konyang University ’19, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology)
- Ellen Pil (University of Notre Dame, ’21, Political Science, Pre-Health track)
Summer 2019 Interns
- Mackenzie Flynn (George Washington University ’21, Political Science, minors in Public Health and Sustainability)
- Emily Hong (University of California Irvine ’20, Public Health Policy, minor in Medical Anthropology)
Fall 2019 Interns
- Anupama Dinesh (Brown University ’20, Health & Human Biology and Anthropology)
- Reena Jasani (UT Southwestern Medical School ’22, MD/MPH)
- Claire Viscione (George Washington University ’20, Public Health, minor in Business Administration)
Spring 2019 Interns
- Silvana Barbosa (Providence College ’19, Health Policy & Managements)
- Kaitlyn Freels (University of Maryland College Park ’19, Neurobiology & Physiology)