Stevens received her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Maryland, College Park, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine with the late Ben Barres. Since then, she has made seminal contributions to our understanding of microglia, complement, and developmental mechanisms that shape synapse and neural circuit plasticity and vulnerability across aging and disease. A major focus of her research is to define conserved neuroimmune mechanisms that contribute to disease risk and resilience in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Stevens has adopted an interdisciplinary approach integrating genetics, immunology, and neuroscience to uncover disease mechanisms, identify therapeutic targets, and develop mechanistic biomarkers.

 

Stevens is Director of the NIH/NIMH Conte Center for Neuroimmune Studies at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, the Endowed Research Chair of the Lavine Family Foundation, and an Elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research, Dana Foundation Award, Gill Center Transformative Research Award, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Research Award, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

​​

Read more about Beth in this Nature Neuroscience interview or this Spectrum profile .