Biography
Dr. R. Anne Stetler
AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow
Office of the Assistant Director
Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships
Class of 2023-2024
Dr. R. Anne Stetler joins NSF with an extensive background as a basic biomedical neuroscientist with expertise in neurological injury, particularly focused on models of stroke. Her research extends from cell and molecular mechanisms of injury and repair to behavioral outcomes and structural integrity. After completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology at Allegheny College, she obtained her Ph.D. in 2005 from the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on cell death mechanisms. Stetler has been extensively funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Heart Association (AHA), involved in peer review for many scientific journals as well as for NIH and AHA review panels and international funding mechanisms, and serves on the editorial board of Neurobiology of Disease.
One of Stetler’s longstanding interests has been to gain a deep understanding of and participate in the infrastructure of scientific research, particularly how it can be supported and serve its communities. During her doctoral studies, she obtained a scholarship from the Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh to explore the issues underlying scientific research in two lower to middle income countries (LMICs). As junior faculty, Stetler gave lectures at Fudan University in Shanghai, China in 2016 on ethics, research integrity, and scientific communication, and she has consistently found outreach opportunities to the general public, in both schools and local science festivals. Recognizing the struggle for basic stroke research to successfully lead to clinical translation, Stetler participated in several NIH workshops that ultimately led to the development of NIH’s Stroke Preclinical Assessment Network (SPAN), for which she subsequently served as a reviewer in the second round of funding. In her free time, Stetler most loves to go on walks and learn from deep conversation.