Cheryl Anne Boyce, PhD

Cheryl Anne Boyce, PhD, is the director of the mental health focus area on the Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration team within the Strategic Philanthropy pillar at the Milken Institute.

Before joining the Milken Institute, Boyce served as an associate commissioner at the United States Food and Drug Administration, overseeing programs that advanced clinical research, therapeutic development, and scientific engagement to inform regulatory decision-making. She previously served as the inaugural assistant director for Re-engineering the Research Enterprise in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund, where she led high-risk, high-reward initiatives and landmark clinical and translational research programs. Her NIH career also included leadership roles at the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, with a focus on developmental neuroscience, preventive interventions, and implementation science. 

Her federal service further includes work in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and as a Society for Research in Child Development/American Association for the Advancement of Science Science and Technology Policy Fellow, focused on national initiatives on children, trauma, drug abuse, and mental health. Boyce is a coauthor of a widely used handbook on writing research grants, which has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, completing clinical and research fellowships at Children’s National Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She works at the Institute’s Washington office.