Dr. Packenham manages Scientific Programs and Scientific Resources for NIEHS, and currently serves as Director for the Office of Human Research Compliance in the NIEHS Clinical Research Branch and the Vice Chair for the NIEHS Institutional Review Board.
Dr. Packenham has developed and managed Research & Development contracts for scientific resources for NIEHS. She has worked in both the Intramural and the Extramural Research Divisions of NIEHS. Her research and scientific administrative expertise includes: clinical research, translational research, toxicology, mouse genetics, molecular genetics, pathology, molecular genetic mechanisms of oxidative stress, signal transduction, apoptosis, DNA repair, cell cycle control, cancer research, gene expression in environmentally induced disease, mouse genetics and the NIEHS Environmental Genome Project.
She has a B.S. degree in Biology and a minor in Chemistry from North Carolina Central University and a Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine. Dr. Packenham, has also served as a Government Senior Science Policy Advisor, being selected as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Policy Fellow.
In 2010, Dr. Packenham received the National Women of Color in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) award for Career Achievement in Government.