Nickie Andescavage, M.D., is Associate Chief of Medical and Academic Affairs of the Developing Brain Institute (DBI) at Children’s National, providing oversight of the medical and clinical care teams of DBI, supporting continuity of care across the prenatal-neonatal continuum, and overseeing the Maternal and Infant Clinical Trials Unit. Immediately prior, she was clinical director of research and prenatal pediatrics, providing oversight of our prenatal, neonatal and community studies, led our community engagement efforts with obstetricians and maternal-fetal medicine specialists, and expanded our clinical research enterprise to a growing number of community partners. Dr. Andescavage also is an attending physician in Children’s Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and a tenure-track Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

Dr. Andescavage’s background in neonatology began with early academic interests in the mechanisms of acquired brain injury in premature infants. A subsequent fellowship in fetal medicine provided her additional expertise in fetal brain development, including training in advanced structural imaging techniques. These sophisticated techniques allow for more rigorous study of the development and metabolism of the fetal brain and the more precise detection of injury, as well as the role of placental development on fetal neurodevelopment. She is an active investigator for numerous current grants from the National Institutes of Health and Patient Centered Oriented Research Institute, and principal investigators of a previous Eunice Kennedy Shriver of Child Health and Human Development K23 career development grant.