Tim Kerns

Chief Information Officer
Office of Administrative Management
kernst@mail.nih.gov
301-827-1679

Tim Kerns is NIMHD’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the Office of Administrative Management. He oversees the management of information technology functions, conducts strategic planning, and supervises IT staff for the Institute.

Mr. Kerns started as a contractor at NIH in 1998 as a help desk technician at the National Cancer Institute and was later promoted into several team leadership and management roles in help desk and infrastructure operations at NCI, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. In January 2015, he joined the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases as an IT specialist and became the head of the Customer Support section of the Computer Technology Branch in January 2016. From January 2022 to April 2022, he served as Acting CIO for the National Institute of Nursing Research.

Mr. Kerns earned a B.A. in chemistry and a B.S. in science education from North Carolina State University, and an M.Ed. in secondary science education from Clemson University. His career in information technology started during his undergraduate years when he was asked to manage a small computer network in the chemistry department’s undergraduate tutorial center.

Page updated April 7, 2023