Samantha L. White, PhD

Samantha L. White, PhD, is the Managing Director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute. She oversees the center’s operations, expanding access to effective mental health care for children and adolescents worldwide with a focus on combatting the three greatest barriers to care: lack of information, limited access, and stigma.

Dr. White’s interests include reducing health disparities by encouraging inclusivity within scientific discoveries and expanding access to care, involving individuals with lived experience in the early stages of developing and implementing scientific and clinical programs, and reducing the stigma surrounding mental health disorders worldwide.

Before joining the team at the Child Mind Institute, Dr. White was the Chief of Scientific and Public Engagement for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health. She developed the role with NINDS leadership while co-creating the Office of Neuroscience Communications and Engagement.

With over a decade of professional experience, Dr. White is an expert in science communication, organizational development and management of scientific initiatives, community engagement and outreach, science policy interpretation and implementation, and international collaboration and partnerships. She has hands-on experience in neuroscience, with a focus on the neurobiology of addiction and mental health, as well as professional knowledge of neurological disorders including stroke. She is a leading organizer of national and international scientific meetings and conferences with public and professional attendees, including the integration of cutting-edge virtual and hybrid technologies to enhance accessibility for meeting speakers and participants.

Dr. White has received numerous honors, including multiple individual and team awards from the directors of NINDS and NIH. She has authored, co-authored, and edited many scientific articles, presentations, and posters, as well as reviews and commentaries on federally funded scientific programming and policies, that have been published in peer-reviewed journals like Neuropsychopharmacology and the Journal of Neuroscience.

• Chief of Scientific and Public Engagement in the Office of Neuroscience Communications and Engagement (ONCE), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Science Communication and Coordination Specialist for the Office of Scientific Liaison, NINDS at the NIH
• Science and Technology Policy Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), placed at NINDS, NIH
• Science Policy Fellow, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at Research!America
• Program Director, Co-Director, and Strategic Advisor of the Emerging Leaders, Science and Society Fellowship Program (integrated into AAAS)

• PhD, Addiction Neuroscience, Neuroscience Graduate Group, Biomedical Graduate Studies, University of Pennsylvania
• Post-baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Awardee, Unit on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), NIH
• BS, Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Emory University