James L. Olds, PhD served in several top-level positions including the Head of the Biological Sciences Directorate, National Science Foundation (NSF) managing an annual budget of $750 million, the White House National Science & Technology Subcommittee on Life Sciences, the White House Microbiome Interagency Working Group (MIWG) for the National Microbiome Initiative (NMI), the White House BRAIN project, the Biden Cancer Moonshot, the National Academy of Sciences Forum on Neuroscience, and George Mason University’s Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study.