Michael McGeary, Study Director, 202-334-1745, mmcgeary@nas.edu 
Susan McCutchen, Research Associate, 202-334-3027, smccutch@nas.edu

Staff Biographies

Michael McGeary

Mr. McGeary is a senior program officer at the Board on Health Sciences Policy and director of the nuclear detonation committee. He is apolitical scientist specializing in science, health, and technology policy analysis and program evaluation. Before 2004, he was an independent consultant to government agencies, foundations, and nonprofit organizations in issues of science and technology for nine years. Between 1981 and 995, Mr. McGeary was at IOM and the National Academy of Sciences, where he was staff director of more than a dozen major reports on such topics as federal funding of research and development; graduate education and employment of scientists and engineers; and priority setting, funding, and management of the National Institutes of Health. From 2004 to 2007, he was staff director for IOM committees that recommended improvements in the systems for determining disability of the Social Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affaires, respectively, Mr. McGeary is a graduate of Harvard College and completed all requirements for a doctorate in political science from MIT except the dissertation.

Susan R. McCutchen

Ms. McCutchen is a senior program associate at the Board on Health Sciences Policy. She has been on staff at The National Academies for 27 years and has worked in several institutional divisions and with many different boards, committees, and panels within those units. The studies in which she has participated have addressed a broad range of subjects and focused on a variety of issues related to  science and technology for international development, technology  transfer, aeronautics and the U.S. space program, natural disaster mitigation, U.S. education policy and science curricula, needle exchange for the prevention of HIV transmission, the scientific merit of the polygraph, human factors/engineering, research ethics, disability compensation programs, health hazard evaluation, and medical and public health preparedness for catastrophic events. She has assisted in the production of more than 50 publications. Ms. McCutchen has a B.A. in French, with minors in Italian and Spanish, from Ohio’s Miami University, and an MA in French, with a minor in English, from Kent State University.