Jessica McKlveen, Ph.D.

Director, Office of Scientific Review

Email: jessica.mcklveen@nih.gov

Jessica McKlveen, Ph.D., is the director of the Office of Scientific Review (OSR) at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). She directs and coordinates all activities related to the peer review of grant applications for investigator-initiated research, small business, fellowship, and career development awards; conference grants; and NCCIH-specific funding announcements and center programs. She also serves as the referral officer for NCCIH. In this capacity, she assigns applications to NCCIH study sections and interacts with referral officers across the National Institutes of Health (NIH), negotiating appropriate funding institute assignment of submitted applications. Dr. McKlveen also has a strong interest in review policy and is part of NIH’s Review Policy Committee. She joined NCCIH in 2018 as a scientific review officer and was promoted to deputy director of OSR in 2022. In this capacity, she administered the scientific review of applications submitted to NCCIH in response to its various funding opportunities, with a primary focus on the review of applications submitted in response to trans-NIH request for applications as well as the NCCIH Training and Education Review Panel. 

Previously, Dr. McKlveen served as a scientific program manager for the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study in the Division of Extramural Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Before joining NIH, Dr. McKlveen served as a Department of Defense contractor supporting the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs as a science officer and the Joint Program Committee-1/Medical Simulation and Information Sciences Research Program as a technology transfer specialist and assistant portfolio manager. She received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Cincinnati, where she studied the role of prefrontal glucocorticoid receptors in synaptic, neuroendocrine, and behavioral stress adaptation. Dr. McKlveen also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which focused on the impact of binge-like alcohol consumption on synaptic plasticity and behavior in rodent models.