Rear Admiral (RADM) Richard Childs serves as the Scientific Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1987 and Georgetown University Medical School in 1991. He completed his internship, residency, and a Chief Residency in internal medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville followed by fellowships in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH, and Hematology at the NHLBI, NIH. Following fellowship training, he was appointed a tenure-track investigator in the Hematology Branch of the NHLBI and received tenure at the NIH in 2006. He was the first investigator to show that metastatic kidney cancer could be cured by transplanted allogeneic immune cells through a graft-vs-tumor effect, a seminal discovery that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. He continues to run a translational research lab that conducts first-in-human research in bone marrow transplantation and tumor immunotherapy. He is board certified in medical oncology, has performed more than 600 experimental bone marrow stem cell transplants at the NIH, holds more than 30 patents related to NK and T-cell based immunotherapy, and has published over 250 original research papers as the lead or senior author. 

RADM Childs served as the NHLBI Clinical Director from February 2013 to February 2024, directing one of the NIH’s largest clinical and translational science programs, having oversight of all of the NHLBI’s intramural research in heart, lung, and blood diseases, including over 250 investigator-initiated clinical trials. As Clinical Director, he spearheaded and operationalized a multi-million dollar strategic plan in 2015 that completely revamped his institute’s research infrastructure, revitalizing NHLBI’s clinical research enterprise substantially improving and expanding its clinical research footprint and productivity.

In February 2024, Dr. Childs was promoted to Scientific Director of the NHLBI. As Scientific Director, he directs and provides oversight of the intramural research program of the NHLBI, ensuring resources are allocated appropriately to achieve the research mission of the NHLBI, setting overarching research priorities in partnership with the Institute Director and overseeing the recruitment of a talented and diverse faculty to conduct high-quality and ethical research ranging from basic molecular to clinical/translational research.

Dr. Childs has been an active duty officer in the United States Commissioned Corps since 1995. In 2015, he was promoted to Rear Admiral (Lower Half) and 2020 was promoted to Rear Admiral (Upper Half) and serves as an Assistant United States Surgeon General. In 2014, he deployed to Liberia, West Africa, as a part of the United States Ebola Crisis Response, where he served as the Chief Medical Officer caring for Ebola patients in the Monrovia Medical Unit (MMU). In 2020, he commanded a rapid response deployment team to Yokohama, Japan, that evacuated hundreds of COVID-19 infected/exposed Americans from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and provided compassionate use remdesivir for severe and critically ill passengers suffering with severe COVID-19, well before this drug received approval as a treatment for SARS-CoV-2. In April 2021 when the Corps was faced with the daunting task of deploying hundreds of officers in a short time frame for Operation Artemis, the largest Unaccompanied Children mission in our nation’s history. With his leadership, the PHS was able to successfully deploy more than 700 Officers to help care for thousands of children who had crossed the border. Most recently, he served for 5 months as the Interim Director of Commissioned Corps Headquarters, directing the activities of over 6,000 USPHS Officers. His service has earned him the United States Meritorious Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal with Valor, the Humanitarian Service and Global Health Award, and the Assistant Secretary of Health’s Exceptional Service Medal.