Dr. Frascella is presently the Senior Science Advisor to the Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the NIH, where he was formerly the Director of the Division of Clinical Neuroscience and Behavioral Research at NIDA. As Director, he led broad clinical research and research training programs in neuroscience, human development, and behavioral treatment. Prior to this position, he served as Branch Chief of the Clinical Neuroscience Branch at NIDA.
Before joining NIDA, Dr. Frascella was a research physiologist at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and prior to this position, he served as an Assistant Professor within the Department of Psychology at Brown University. He received a Ph.D. and M.S. in Experimental Psychology/Neuroscience from Brown University, and an undergraduate degree in Biopsychology from Hamilton College.
Presently, he is at UMBC for one year working in the Office of the Vice President for Research. In this position, the goals are to help UMBC faculty become aware of NIH research opportunities, to provide mentorship to students and faculty on grant-writing strategies, and to establish collaborations between the NIH Institutes and UMBC. An additional goal is to work specifically on addressing issues of diversity and disparity at NIH and to more effectively link UMBC with the NIH.