Nina Friedman, PhD

Director of Operations and Communications and Co-Founder at 27 UNIHTED

• Former Predoctoral Fellow at the NIH

• Received a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Maryland in 2026

Nina was four and a half years into her fellowship at NIH when HHS suddenly implemented a communications freeze. She was studying how networks in the brain could change to support our flexible understanding of the world when suddenly she could no longer communicate with her colleagues or order critical experimental equipment. After receiving threatening emails asking staff to out their “DEI” colleagues, she realized that leadership was not ready to resolve the issue. First she advocated independently, connecting with news media, posting social media, and reposting portraits of diverse NIH community members around campus after they were removed. She found other NIH staff risking their livelihoods to fight for scientific freedom and a just government and they began to work collectively, visiting Congress, organizing a walkout of Director Bhattacharya’s town hall, and organizing a (Not) NIH Take Your Family to Work Day, when the formal event was cancelled.