Dr. Michael Sesma is a Health Scientist Administrator at the National Institute of Mental Health in the Division of Developmental Translational Research where he currently has responsibility for research training and career development programs. Dr. Sesma received his B.A. in biology and psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 1976, and his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Riverside in 1981. He received postdoctoral training from 1981-1985 in the Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, and Psychology at Vanderbilt University. From 1985 to 1994, he was a faculty member of the School of Optometry at the University of Missouri-St. Louis where his research focused on the functional organization and development in the visual system. In 1990, as a visiting faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University Medical School his research focused on the role of glutamate and glutamate receptors in normal and neurodegenerative processes in the brain that may underlie neurological and psychiatric illnesses. In 1994 Dr. Sesma joined the NIH in the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) as a scientific review administrator, primarily responsible for the Minority Biomedical Research Support Program Review Committee. In 1996, he added the duties of program director in the Division of Genetics and Developmental Biology at NIGMS, responsible for the research portfolio in neurogenetics and the genetics of behavior. He moved to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 2002 to develop the Research Scientist Development Program in the Office for Special Populations. Dr. Sesma has served on a variety of academic and NIH committees including the Society for Neuroscience Committee for Neuroscience Literacy, the NIH Staff Training in Extramural Programs Committee, which he recently chaired, and is past treasurer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and NIH Hispanic employee organizations.