National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli will resign on Jan. 17, she told staff this week, ending her tenure as the head of the $48 billion biomedical research agency after only a year.
“I am so proud of what NIH has been able to achieve in such a short time under my leadership,” Bertagnolli said in her announcement, touting a list of initiatives launched that she hopes the next administration will continue.
I totally understand that sentiment, but I would like to point out that by doing this now, she gets a news headline and an article highlighting the work she and the NIH have done, whereas otherwise it would get lost in the sea of firings and department shut downs that are about to happen.
Because people aren’t even going to be thinking about the NIH when they decide to close the Department of Education.