The Next Director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Lindsey A. Criswell, professor of medicine and vice chancellor of research at the University of California, San Francisco, has been selected as the next director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, one of 27 institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health. She will assume the role in early 2021.

Dr. Criswell will oversee a federal institution with an annual budget of nearly $625 million and a mission to support scientific research, training, and career development in the fields of rheumatology, muscle biology, orthopedics, bone and mineral metabolism, and dermatology, among others.

“Having dedicated much of my career to studying and treating autoimmune disorders such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, I am tremendously honored to serve as director of NIAMS,” Dr. Criswell said.

Professor Criswell began her academic career at the University of California, San  Francisco in 1989 with a fellowship in rheumatology. She was promoted to full professor in 2007. Dr. Criswwell also serves as a professor of orofacial sciences in the School of Dentistry and is co-director of the university’s Clinical & Translational Science Institute.

Professor Criswell earned her bachelor’s degree in genetics and her master’s degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. She received her medical training at the University of California, San Francisco. She later received a doctorate in genetic epidemiology from the Netherlands Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Rotterdam.