BBCSS Staff and Contact Information

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The following contact information should be used for all staff:

Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences
The National Academies
Keck Center
500 5^th Street, NW – 11^th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20001
Tel: (202) 334-2678 | Fax: (202) 334-2210
Email: bbcss@nas.edu (BBCSS)

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Biographies
Cherie Chauvin, M.S., M.A.
Program Officer
Cherie Chauvin joined BBCSS in 2008 as the Study Director for two studies involving national security. She possesses an MS in Strategic Intelligence from the National Defense Intelligence College (Washington, DC), an MA in International Relations from The Maxwell School at Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY), and a BS in Cognitive Science from the University of California at San Diego (La Jolla, CA). Previously, Ms. Chauvin was with the Department of Defense, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), where her last position was Intelligence Officer and Platform Manager in the Directorate of Human Intelligence, Asia Pacific Division. As such, she supported military operations and liaison relationships in Japan, South Korea and Mongolia. During her time with DIA Ms Chauvin deployed to Afghanistan where she conducted intelligence collection operations in Kabul to answer strategic and tactical military intelligence requirements. In recognition of her service, she was awarded both the DIA Civilian Expeditionary Medal and the Department of the Army Commander’s Award for Civilian Service.
Eric Chen
Senior Program Assistant
Eric received a B.A. in Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also wrote about science and technology for the Daily Pennsylvanian. Before joining BBCSS and BOHSI, Eric worked in the financial services industry and owned a bicycle shop in Washington, DC. At the NRC, he provides support to projects involving transportation and human-systems integration. Having a desire to travel to South America, he is currently learning Spanish.
Jatryce Jackson
Program Associate
Jatryce Jackson holds a B.A. in History and American Studies. Most recently, she obtained a master’s certificate in Documentary Filmmaking. Prior to coming to NAS, she taught in the Prince George’s County Public Schools system and in a private academy. Jatryce has a passion for social justice and education and would like to utilize her career to effect positive change in our society.
Moses M. Jackson
Program Associate
Moses rejoined the National Academies in 2011 after serving for two years in Honduras as a Peace Corps volunteer. In his role there as Water and Sanitation Engineer, he managed a range of sustainable development projects that increased access to potable water and sanitation systems in underserved communities. Previously, Moses worked for three years on the editorial staff at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), where he facilitated manuscript quality control and peer review. Moses grew up in and around Washington, DC and has since traveled extensively. He is proficient in Spanish and holds a B.A. from the University of Maryland.
Matthew D. McDonough, M.A.
Research Associate
Matthew D. McDonough is a graduate of The George Washington University with an M.A. in anthropology and a concentration in international development. In six years working at the NRC he has staffed the Board on Life Sciences, the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, the Board on Human-Systems Integration, and the Board on Children, Youth, and Families. In addition to assisting with the work of BBCSS and BOHSI, he currently provides support to the External Evaluation of NIDRR and Its Grantees. He has supported the development of many reports, such as Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Human-Systems Integration in the Design Process: A New Look, Human Behavior in Military Contexts, Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What, and How, and Intelligence Analysis: Behavioral and Social Scientific Foundations. The Red Sox are the best team ever.
Jeanne Rivard, Ph.D.
Senior Program Officer
Jeanne Rivard earned a Ph.D. in Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she received a National Research Service Award from NIMH (F31, MH11552) to conduct her dissertation study investigating factors promoting change in interagency collaboration. She also has a M.S.W. degree (University of South Carolina) and a M.S.Ed. (Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles, CA). While on the faculty of the Columbia University School of Social Work, her research included a developmental study examining the implementation and intermediate outcomes of a trauma-focused intervention for youth (R21 MH62896) and an evaluation of the implementation and outcomes of an interagency initiative designed to integrate vocational and supportive housing services for homeless persons with mental illness, substance abuse, HIV, and other disabilities. Before coming to DBASSE she worked at the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Research Institute where she led initiatives to promote the dissemination of evidence-based practices, was a team leader on the impact component of a cross-site evaluation of a federal child trauma initiative, and coordinated pilot studies to increase the utilization of multi-state administrative datasets to address mental health policy questions. At DBASSE Jeanne will be working with the Committee on the external evaluation of National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)-funded research and development grants.
Julie Schuck, M.S.
Senior Program Associate
Julie Anne Schuck has worked in the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of NRC for over 9 years. She has provided research support for a number of projects and workshops, including those on improving undergraduate instruction in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; understanding the technical and privacy dimensions of information for terrorism prevention; and strengthening the research program of the National Institute of Justice. Previously she was a research support specialist at Cornell University. She has an M.S. in education from Cornell University and a B.S. in engineering physics from the University of California, San Diego.
Barbara A. Wanchisen, Ph.D.
Director, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences
Director, Board on Human-Systems Integration
Barbara A. Wanchisen received a B.A. in English and Philosophy from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, an M.A. in English from Villanova University, and her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Temple University. She is a long-standing member of the Psychonomic Society, American Psychological Association (fellow, Division 25), Association for Behavior Analysis - International, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and The Behavior Analyst while also serving as a guest reviewer of a number of other journals in experimental psychology. From November 2001 until April 2008, Wanchisen was the executive director of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, & Cognitive Sciences in Washington, DC, a non-profit advocacy organization. In 2004, she was instrumental in the founding of the Federation's Foundation for the Advancement of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, which assumed the educational mission of the Federation. Previously, Wanchisen was Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the college-wide Honors Program at Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland, Ohio.
Toby Warden, Ph.D.
Program Officer
Toby Warden has a Ph.D. in Social Ecology with an emphasis on Environmental Analysis and Design from the University of California, Irvine. Her doctoral research applied quantitative and qualitative methodologies to examine the rise of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. She has a B.A. in History from the University of California, Irvine where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Prior to joining BOHSI, she worked as a Program Officer with the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council. She served as study director for Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts over Decades to Millennia and When Weather Matters: Science and Service to Meet Critical Societal Needs. She has nearly a decade’s worth of experience as a program manager and community organizer in the fields of public health and youth advocacy in Boston, Massachusetts.
Melissa K. Welch-Ross, Ph.D.
Deputy Director, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences
Deputy Director, Board on Human Systems Integration
Melissa Welch-Ross is deputy director of the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences (BBCSS) and the Board on Human Systems Integration (BOHSI). Previously, she served three years as senior program officer at the National Research Council, where she directed the study that produced the 2012 report Improving Adult Literacy Instruction: Options for Practice and Research. Prior to joining the National Academies, she served three years as a special expert in research and policy analysis at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Division of Children and Youth Policy. She earlier launched and directed the Early Learning and School Readiness Research Program for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She has held faculty appointments at George Mason University and Georgia State University, where she conducted longitudinal research on early memory development with funding from the NIH and published other experiments on social cognition and memory. In 2000, she was an Executive Branch Science Policy Fellow sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Society for Research in Child Development. She has served terms as consulting editor for the flagship journals Child Development (2002-2007) and Developmental Psychology (1999-2004), and was lead editor of the 2007 Handbook on Communicating and Disseminating Behavioral Science. Welch-Ross received a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Florida.

Renée L. Wilson Gaines
Senior Program Assistant
Renée L. Wilson Gaines joined BBCSS and BOHSI after more than 32 years of law office, nonprofit, and academia experience. Since joining the NRC, she has supported studies such as Mine Safety: Essential Components of Self-Escape, Sociocultural Data to Accomplish Department of Defense Missions, The Role of Human Factors in Home Health Care, Field Evaluation in the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Context, and A Database for a Changing Economy: Review of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET).
Tina Winters
Associate Program Officer
Tina Winters has returned to the Academies to work with the Committee on the External Evaluation of NIDRR and Its Grantees. Prior to rejoining the Academies, she worked on an initiative to spread innovative health care practices and with the coordinating center for a medical registry on islet cell transplantation. In her previous tenure at the Academies, she worked with the Committee on Social Science Evidence for Use and has supported numerous studies, including Scientific Research in Education, Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment, and the National Science Education Standards.