Office of the Director biographies

Adrian J. Ivinson, PhD, is the founding Director of the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center (originally the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair). Dr. Ivinson helped develop the vision of an integrated and tightly managed research center engaged in groundbreaking and collaborative research at Harvard Medical School, its affiliated research hospitals, and other leading research groups around the world. Prior to his appointment as Director, Dr. Ivinson was special advisor to the Provost of Harvard University. From 1993-2000 he held a number of leadership positions at the prestigious Nature Publishing Group, including Editor-in-Chief of the journal Nature Medicine and Publisher of the monthly journals. Trained as a geneticist, Dr. Ivinson's research career focused on the genetics of single gene disorders.

Patricia G. McCaffrey, PhD, is the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center’s Co-Executive Editor of the Pain Research Forum. Dr. McCaffrey earned her PhD in Applied Biology from MIT and spent 15 years as a researcher studying immunology, cancer and neurobiology in academia and industry. In 2004, Dr. McCaffrey received her masters degree in science journalism from Boston University, and began a successful career as a freelance science writer and editor. Well-versed in producing prose for an audience of biomedical researchers, Dr. McCaffrey has written for various publication at Harvard Medical School, Yale School of Medicine, Harvard University, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Immune Disease Institute, as well as Nature Network Boston and Lancet Oncology. Most recently, Dr. McCaffrey was a writer for the Alzheimer Research Forum and the Schizophrenia Research Forum, two web sites that serve as important models for the Pain Research Forum.

Neil Andrews, MS, MA, is the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center's Co-Executive Editor of the Pain Research Forum. Mr. Andrews is a veteran science writer who specializes in writing and editing for expert audiences, including researchers and clinicians, working in the biomedical arena. He earned an undergraduate degree in psychobiology from Hamilton College, a master of science degree in science journalism from Boston University, and a master of arts degree in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 2005-2011 Mr. Andrews was the Managing Editor of IBMS BoneKEy, an online-only journal and knowledge environment that he helped grow into one of the premier publications in the bone field.

Megan W. T. Talkington, PhD, is the Science Writer for the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center's Pain Research Forum. Trained as both a scientist and writer, she earned undergraduate degrees in chemistry and English from Duke University, and a PhD in biochemistry from The Scripps Research Institute. Following postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and writing for the HMS research newsletter Focus, in 2009 she did an internship at the general interest science magazine Discover. Recently, she was a writer for Children's Hospital Boston, building webpages on clinical conditions and research in neurology for a patient family audience. In her own research, Dr. Talkington studied RNA and protein assembly.

Nancy E. Maher, MPH, is the Senior Programs Manager responsible for working with the eight HNDC programs. Ms. Maher is the liason between the programs and the HNDC with respect to the annual budgets, annual progress reports and building bridges between the programs. Ms. Maher has over 13 years of clinical research management experience in academia, most recently managing the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center Biomarker Study.

Shanell Lavery is the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center’s Administrative Coordinator, providing project support to the Senior Programs Manager and administrative support to the Director. Ms. Lavery is currently pursuing a degree from the Harvard University Extension School.