ONHM Staff
ONHM consists of eight staff members - historians, archivists, museum curators. and an administrator - with complementary professional training, experience, and expertise.
Dr. Pelis joined the office in 2022, after 16 years as lead speechwriter to the NIH Director and an editor the NIH Director’s Blog. Pelis received her PhD at the Johns Hopkins Institute for the History of Medicine. Her Fulbright-supported dissertation led to the book, Charles Nicolle, Pasteur’s Imperial Missionary: Typhus and Tunisia (Rochester, 2006). Her postdoc, jointly sponsored by the Wellcome Institute and the Science Museum, London, yielded several sole-authored articles on the history of blood transfusion. In addition to her work at NIH, she has held academic appointments at the University of Notre Dame, the Uniformed Services University, and the University of Iowa.
Dr. Heitman serves ONHM as historian and program manager. Her main historical interests lie in the emergence of scientific metrics and systems of records. As a graduate fellow of both the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon/Woodrow Wilson Foundations, she earned a PhD with Certification in the History and Philosophy of Science from The Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Prior to joining NIH in 2022, she taught critical thinking and the history of philosophy, science, and medicine at JHU; Coppin State College (now University); and the Uniformed University of the Health Sciences (USU). She also served as USU’s Director of Intramural Programs and Research Development (2002-2007) and subsequently led several curriculum development projects as well as editing scientific research publications and extramural grant applications for USU research programs, including the Center for Biotechnology (CBT); Rehab, Refit, Return to Duty (Rx3), and the Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP).
Ms. Dotson manages the ONHM website and other IT-related administrative duties while also supporting the office’s day-to-day operations. Before joining ONHM, she provided executive-level administrative support for staff and research participants for the Office of AIDS Research (OAR) and the NIAID Office of Global Research (OGR).
Ms. Barr manages appraisal, acquisition, and processing of ONHM’s archival collections as well as managing ONHM’s web archives. She also oversees the office’s oral history program and serves as ONHM’s Records Management Liaison. In addition to earning a Masters of Science in Information from University of Michigan, she became a Certified Archivist through the Academy of Certified Archivists in 2017 and earned her Certificate in Digital Archives from the Society of American Archivists in 2018. Her prior experience includes positions at the National Library of Medicine and Northwestern University Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center.
Ms. Higingbotham has primary responsibility for ONHM’s audiovisual, photograph, and library collections. Alongside Gabrielle Barr, ONHM’s Senior Archivist, she preserves and cares for ONHM’s physical and digital archival collections, manages new digital-preservation projects, responds to reference inquiries, and supports in-person researchers. She came to ONHM in 2021, initially as a Pathways Graduate Intern earning a masters degree in Museum Studies from George Washington University with a concentration in Collections Management. She moved to her present full-time, permanent position after completing her degree in 2022.
Dr. Miller leads ONHM's collecting efforts, donor relations, and exhibition program. She came to ONHM from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC), where she began as a Mellon Curatorial Fellow while earning her PhD in US History from American University and became a museum specialist contributing to exhibitions, collecting, publications, and public programs. She has also served as a curator for the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society, and as curator and historian at the National Library of Medicine.
Ms. Valera is responsible for care of the Stetten Museum collections; object loans to and from other museums; maintenance of ONHM’s online collections catalogue. She also handles inquiries regarding the manuals and trade catalog collections. She came to ONHM as Pathways Graduate Intern in 2022 and became a full-time, permanent employee in 2022, when she completed a masters degree in Museum Studies at George Washington University.
Ms. Lyons provides support in managing the Stetten Museum collection and developing exhibits. After earning a masters degree in Museum Studies from George Washington University, she served as Curator of the DeWitt Stetten, Jr., Museum of Medical Research and Associate Director of ONHM from 1995 until her retirement in December 2023. Her major interests include documenting NIH’s technological inventions as well as its expansion and research in the 1930s.