Ruth L. Kirschstein, M.D., Acting Director, NCCAM
Ruth L. Kirschstein, M.D
On November 7, 2006, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., appointed Ruth L. Kirschstein, M.D., as Acting Director of NCCAM.
Dr. Kirschstein is a native of Brooklyn, New York. She graduated magna cum laude from Long Island University in 1947, earned her M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1951, and interned in medicine and surgery at Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn. She did residencies in pathology at Providence Hospital, Detroit; Tulane University School of Medicine; and the NIH Clinical Center.
From 1957 to 1972, Dr. Kirschstein was a researcher in experimental pathology at the Division of Biologics Standards, now the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She became chief of the Laboratory of Pathology in 1961, assistant director of the Division of Biologics Standards in 1972, and deputy director of the Division later that year when it became part of the FDA. She subsequently served as deputy associate commissioner for science at the FDA.
Dr. Kirschstein was the first woman director of an NIH institute, when she served as director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences from 1974 to 1993. She then became acting associate director of NIH's new Office of Research on Women's Health. She was Deputy Director of NIH from November 1993 to December 1999 and Acting Director of NIH from January to May 2002.
Throughout her career, Dr. Kirschstein has worked as an administrator, fundraiser, and scientific researcher, and investigated possible public health responses in the midst of crisis and conservatism. For example, in the 1950s, the California Cutter Company's Salk polio vaccine was blamed for more than 200 cases of polio. Dr. Kirschstein led the search for a safer alternative, advocating the Sabin oral vaccine that is now used worldwide. In the 1980s, she was a leader in the public health response to the emerging AIDS epidemic, organizing funding and mobilizing an NIH research team to take on the task in the face of conservative opposition.
Among Dr. Kirschstein's many honors and awards are the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Superior Service Award; the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Superior Service Award; the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award; the PHS Special Recognition Award; the Presidential Distinguished Executive Rank Award; election to the Institute of Medicine; and the Albert B. Sabin Heroes of Science Award. In 2002, Congress renamed the National Research Service Awards in honor of her career, as the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards.
Dr. Kirschstein commented to CAM at the NIH, "I join all of Dr. Straus's many colleagues and friends in wishing him well, and I feel a special commitment to carry out the vision he forged for NCCAM as its founding Director. I was Acting Director of NIH when its original Office of Alternative Medicine was created and a member of the search committee that recommended Dr. Straus for the Center's first Director. I have worked closely with many NCCAM staff over the years, and I am doing so again to become familiar with the activities, plans, and programs currently under way. We will be continuing to implement the NCCAM Strategic Plan and working to keep the Center strong."
