Ellen Lee Simon Stover, PhD, was awarded a Presidential Citation for her pioneering efforts to advance domestic and international research, preventive interventions, treatment and training in HIV/AIDS.
Senior policy leader, director, Division of AIDS and Health and Behavior Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Stover leaves a 40-year legacy in HIV/AIDS work. In 1983, when AIDS was plagued by stigma and invisibility, she established the NIMH Office of AIDS Research. Courageous and forward thinking, her portfolio included preventive intervention, pathogenesis and treatment of neuropsychiatric consequences of HIV/AIDS. Stover led the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) behavioral and social science research portfolio across 24 institutions and 21 scientific categories for the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. She also led the development of an HIV/AIDS behavioral prevention think tank, which included seven workgroups of more than 135 scientists, resulting in an NIH funding opportunity announcement involving numerous NIH institutes. Her passion and untiring spirit will continue through the work of those whose scholarship has been supported by and through Stover’s efforts.