Chick Leasure Ends Long NIH Career
NIH Deputy Director for Management Charles E. "Chick" Leasure Jr., who had been in that post since October 2001, retired on Feb. 3 after 38 years in a variety of executive positions throughout NIH. He had nearly 42 years of total federal service.
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Charles "Chick" Leasure Jr. (l), who served in a number of senior-level NIH posts over his career, is congratulated on his retirement by NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni. |
The D.C. native had spent 14 years in North Carolina as executive officer at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences prior to returning to Bethesda, where he worked for 3 years as executive officer at the National Human Genome Research Institute before joining the Office of the Director.
Leasure earned a degree in political science from Georgetown University, then was drafted into the Navy. When his tour of duty ended, he took the Civil Service exam and got a job as an employee relations assistant for NIH's central personnel office in 1965.
After a year there, he became an administrative assistant in the National Cancer Institute, the precursor to an administrative officer position, to which he later rose in NCI's Division of Cancer Treatment.
In 1974, he was named executive officer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a job he held for 10 years. In 1984, he moved his family to North Carolina when he became executive officer at NIEHS.
In 1998, Leasure was tapped to become executive officer at NHGRI, a post that he held until the fall of 2001, when he took on three responsibilities: deputy director for management, NIH's chief financial officer, and acting OD executive officer (until a permanent incumbent was appointed).
"I've been very lucky [that my career] has worked out so well," Leasure once observed. "NIH has been a good place for me. It's been a privilege to work with people who are not only tops in their fields scientifically, but who are also great people."
In retirement, he intends to continue to cultivate old friendships that have endured since grade school days in Northwest Washington, and to indulge his interests in country and bluegrass music.
Colleen Barros now serves as acting NIH deputy director for management and chief financial officer.
NICHD's Colvin Retires After 38 Years
Mary Ellen
Colvin, a grants management specialist at NICHD, retired on Mar.
1 after 38 years with NIH. She joined NICHD in 1966 as a clerk stenographer.
In the early to mid-seventies, she left the institute to work in OD and
NHLBI. Returning to NICHD in 1978 as a secretary to Don Clark, then head
of the Grants Management Office, Colvin became a STRIDE intern and later
graduated from American University in 1982 with a bachelor of science in
business administration. With over 20 years of grants management experience,
Colvin participated in a variety of internal and external committees. She
has been a member of the Society of Research Administrators International
since 1991, serving on meeting planning committees at both the section and
international levels. Colvin's retirement plans include moving to Florida,
where she and her husband are building a house.
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