Dr. Houchens is the Director of the Division of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Medical Countermeasures at Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is part of Health and Human Services (HHS).

His primary focus is building and managing a diverse portfolio of advanced research, development and procurement projects, covering novel vaccines, prophylactics, therapeutics, diagnostics, and devices as medical countermeasures against both biowarfare agents and the global threat of antimicrobial resistance. To that end, Dr. Houchens conducts outreach with industry to identify new partnership opportunities and participates in numerous interagency working groups across the US government.

Prior to joining BARDA, Dr. Houchens served as Senior Scientist at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency where he managed translational research and development programs to rapidly design, manufacture, and evaluate novel medical countermeasures.

Dr. Houchens received his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Vermont. He was then a Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute and a Staff Scientist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.