Colleen Barros, M.A.

Ms. Barros received her M.A. in Public Administration from American University and has served in a variety of Federal administrative positions with special expertise in managing technical and scientific information systems and in R&D management. She began her career with NIH in 1979 as a Budget Analyst and served as Senior Administrative Officer in the NIH Office of the Director. In that position she was responsible for directing the efforts in establishing several new offices such as the Office of AIDS Research, the Office of Human Genome Research, the Office of Research on Minority Health, and the Office of Alternative Medicine.

In 1995, Ms. Barros was selected as the Associate Director for Administration in the National Institute on Aging where she received several awards for her outstanding contributions toward improving the administrative operations of both the NIH and the NIA. In addition, she participated in several trans-NIH committees and projects including serving on the NIH Information Technology Central Committee responsible for advising the NIH Director on NIH information technology issues and as the NBRSS Project Leader responsible for the development and implementation of NIH's new business system.

In February of 2004, Ms. Barros joined the Office of the Director again as she took on the role of Acting Deputy Director for Management until May 30th, when she was appointed Deputy Director for Management.

Her honors include the 2008 Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive Award, the 2003 Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive Award, and 4 NIH Director’s Awards.