The late fall is bringing a number of leadership changes in Bldg. 1 and elsewhere that will have an effect on many aspects of the agency. Eight NIH officials recently changed job status.

The biggest change occurred Oct. 24, when HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced that Dr. Raynard Kington would become acting NIH director following the departure of Dr. Elias Zerhouni. Kington had been principal deputy director of NIH since Feb. 9, 2003. He has shared in the overall leadership, policy direction and coordination of NIH biomedical research and research training programs since that time. Prior to this appointment, he had been NIH associate director for behavioral and social sciences research and from January 2002 to November 2002, he served as acting director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Dr. Cate Fenster, a professor of biology at the College of Wooster in Ohio who is spending the fall semester on sabbatical at NIH, will have more to take back with her than new knowledge about neuroscience when she returns home at Christmastime. On Oct. 26, she won the women’s division of the Marine Corps Marathon in a time of 2:48. It was her first marathon ever.