Interim Chief Academic Officer, Children’s National Hospital
Interim Director, Children's National Research Institute
Vittorio Gallo, Ph.D., is interim chief academic officer at Children’s National Hospital and interim director of the Children's National Research Institute. As an internationally renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Gallo previously served as director of the Children’s National Center for Neuroscience Research for a decade. He is the Wolf-Pack Chair in Neuroscience within Children’s National Research Institute.
In his role, Dr. Gallo oversees the development and implementation of the Children’s National Research Institute strategic plan, including building out the nearly 12-acre property once occupied by Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to serve as a regional innovation hub. Additionally, Dr. Gallo will focus on establishing and enhancing collaborations between research and clinical programs. These cross-collaborative projects are imperative as Children's National continues to define new mechanisms that underlie pediatric diseases.
Dr. Gallo comes to Children’s National from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) intramural program. His intimate knowledge of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has helped him to establish meaningful collaborations between both institutions. During his tenure, he has transformed the Children’s National Center for Neuroscience Research into one of the nation’s premier programs. The Center is home to the prestigious NIH/NICHD-funded District of Columbia Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research center, which Dr. Gallo directs.
Dr. Gallo was inducted into the national honorary medical society Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA). The top 10% of medical students nationwide are elected to AOA, and Dr. Gallo was elected the occasional honorary member.