Bruce M. Altevogt, PhD, is a senior program officer in the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the Institute of Medicine. He received his doctoral thesis from Harvard University’s Program in Neuroscience. While at Harvard Dr. Altevogt studied how the glial cells in the central and peripheral nervous system form a network of cells through intracellular communication, which is critical for maintaining myelin. Following his PhD, Dr. Altevogt was a policy fellow with the Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program at the National Academies. He has over 10 years of research experience. In addition to Dr. Altevogt’s work at Harvard, he also performed neuroscience research at National Institutes of Health and University of Virginia. He received his BA from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville where he majored in biology and minored in south Asian studies. Since joining the Board on Health Sciences Policy, he was a program officer on the IOM studies Spinal Cord Injury: Progress, Promise, and Priorities and Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem, he is serving as the director of the Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders Forum and a co-study director on the National Academy of Sciences Human Embryonic Stem Cells Research Advisory Committee.

Andrew Pope, PhD, is director of the Board on Health Sciences Policy and the Board on Neuroscience and Behavioral Health at the Institute of Medicine. With a PhD in physiology and biochemistry, his primary interests focus on environmental and occupational influences on human health. Dr. Pope’s previous research activities focused on the neuroendocrine and reproductive effects of various environmental substances in food-producing animals. During his tenure at the National Academies and since 1989 at the Institute of Medicine, Dr. Pope has directed numerous studies,; topics include injury control, disability prevention, biological markers, neurotoxicology, indoor allergens, and the enhancement of environmental and occupational health content in medical and nursing school curricula. Most recently, Dr. Pope directed studies on National Institutes of Health priority-setting processes, organ procurement and transplantation policy, and the role of science and technology in countering terrorism.

Sarah L. Hanson, is a senior program associate in the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the Institute of Medicine. Ms. Hanson previously worked for the Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research. She is currently the research associate for the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders. Prior to joining the Institute of Medicine, she served as research and program assistant at the National Research Center for Women & Families. Ms. Hanson has a BA from the University of Kansas with a double major in political science and international studies.  She is currently taking pre-med courses at the University of Maryland and hopes to attend medical school in the future.

Lora K. Taylor is a senior project assistant for the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the IOM. She has 16 years of experience working in the academy and prior to joining the Institute of Medicine, she served as the administrative associate for the Report Review Committee and the Division on Life Sciences' Ocean Studies Board. Ms. Taylor has a BA from Georgetown University with a double major in psychology and fine arts.