Samantha Finstad, Ph.D.

Dr. Samantha Finstad serves as a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Office of the Deputy Director. In this capacity, she participates in the organization, development, and evaluation of NCI initiatives and works to facilitate multidisciplinary collaborations among researchers, NCI and NIH colleagues, and external partners. In addition to her role as Program Director, she also serves as the Executive Secretary for the President’s Cancer Panel, where she works with the Panel’s Members and Executive Secretary to develop their recommendations and reports.

Dr. Finstad previously served as a Senior Health Science Policy Analyst within the NCI Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials, where she was involved with optimizing cancer clinical trials searching and the Clinical Trials and Translational Research Advisory Committee (CTAC). She was the Section Chief for Strategy, Plans, and Programs, and Acting Section Chief for Communication and Technology at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center at the Defense Health Agency.

Dr. Finstad is an immunologist by training and has extensive experience in science policy, science writing, scientific planning, portfolio analysis, and program evaluation. She came to the NCI Office of Science Policy and Assessment in 2010 through the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship program. Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Finstad was a postdoctoral fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard University. She received a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Tulane University.