American physician and biologist
Nancy C. Andrews (born November 29, 1958) is an American biologist and physician noted for her research on iron homeostasis. Andrews was formerly Dean of the Duke University School of Medicine.[1][2]
Biography
Andrews grew up in Syracuse, New York.[1] She earned a B.S. and M.S. from Yale University. She carried out her M.S. research with Joan Steitz, studying molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and continued her graduate work with David Baltimore. She earned a Ph.D. in 1985 from M.I.T. and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1987 .[1] She completed her postdoctoral work with Stuart Orkin at Children's Hospital Boston.
Andrews then joined the faculty at Harvard University, Boston Children's Hospital and the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in 1991, assuming an endowed chair in 2003, and the position of Dean for Basic Sciences and Graduate Studies at Harvard Medical School. In 2007, Andrews left to take a position as the first female Dean of Medicine at Duke University.[1][3] In this position, she was the only woman heading any of the top ten medical schools in the U.S.[1][4] She stepped down from the Deanship in 2017.[2] Andrews was selected as the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Boston Children's Hospital in November 2021.
Andrews studied treatments for and molecular processes governing iron disease, such as anemia (iron deficiency) and hemochromatosis.[5]
Andrews served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 2017 to 2023 [6][7] and is currently Home Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences. She is also a member of the Boards of Directors of Novartis,[8] Charles River Laboratories and Maze Therapeutics.
Personal life
She is married to fellow biologist Bernard Mathey-Prevot. She is the great-granddaughter of New York Court of Appeals Judge William Shankland Andrews and author Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews, and great-great-granddaughter of New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge Charles Andrews and Bishop Frederic Dan Huntington.[citation needed] She is also the great-niece of composer Roger Sessions, who was the brother of her paternal grandmother, Hannah Sargent Sessions Andrews.
