Lillian Shum, Ph.D.

Dr. Lillian Shum is the director of the Division of Extramural Research at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, where she provides leadership and guidance for the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of the NIDCR extramural research portfolio. She is an alumna of the NIH Executive Leadership Program and represents NIDCR on trans-NIH and interagency working groups, such as the NIH Common Fund’s High Risk-High Rewards Program. She joined NIDCR in 2003 as the director of the Mineralized Tissue Physiology Program. In 2008, she became the chief of the Integrative Biology and Infectious Diseases Branch, where she managed a portfolio of basic and translational research.  She has led the Division of Extramural Research since 2014.

Prior to joining the NIDCR, Dr. Shum conducted research on growth and transcription factor regulation of cranial neural crest cells, stem/progenitor cell differentiation and apoptosis, and craniofacial skeletal development in the NIH intramural program. She completed postdoctoral research on growth and transcription factor signaling at the University of Southern California and at the University of California San Francisco School of Dentistry.​​​ She received a Ph.D. in cell biology, developmental biology, and anatomy from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.