As Deputy Director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bernard serves as the principal advisor to the NIA director, overseeing over $1.5 billion in aging research conducted and supported annually by the Institute. She co-chairs two Department of Health and Human Services Healthy People 2020 objectives: 1) Older Adults and 2) Dementias, Including Alzheimer’s Disease. Within NIH she serves on the Extramural Activities Working Group where she co-chairs the Inclusion Governance Committee, the Diversity Working Group, and Women in Biomedical Careers Working Group where she co-chairs the Women of Color Committee. Until October 2008 she was the endowed professor and founding chairman of the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, and Associate Chief of Staff for Geriatrics and Extended Care at the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She has held numerous national leadership roles, including chair of the Clinical Medicine Section of the Gerontological Society of America, chair of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Research Advisory Committee, board member of the American Geriatrics Society, president of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. She received her undergraduate education at Bryn Mawr College and her MD from University of Pennsylvania. She trained in internal medicine at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, where she also served as chief resident. She has received additional training through the AAMC Health Services Research Institute, the Geriatric Education Center of Pennsylvania, and the Wharton School Executive Development program.