Whitney (barfield) Steward PhD

Dr. Whitney (Barfield) Steward has been a Program Director in the Integrated Networks Branch of the NCI’s CRCHD since August 2021. Before joining NCI, she completed a second postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University in the Behavioral Genetics of Addiction Laboratory, coordinating a multi-site, University-based study that examined both behavioral and genetic risks for substance use development in young adults.

Prior to that, Dr. Steward worked as a Program Officer at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science, supporting strategies to accelerate the integration of evidence-based genomic discoveries into clinical and public health settings. Dr. Steward entered the extramural workforce as an S&T Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Office of Research on Women’s Health, where she helped to manage the office’s minority health and health disparities research portfolio.

Dr. Steward completed her first postdoctoral fellowship at Children's National Health System, where she performed genetic profiling and developed fitness tracking applications for home monitoring in children with metabolic conditions. Dr. Barfield received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Howard University.