Dr. Yarimar Carrasquillo joined the Pain and Integrative Neuroscience Branch of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a Principal Investigator in 2014. Her research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying pain modulation in the brain at cellular and circuit levels using rodent models. Dr. Carrasquillo received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine, followed by postdoctoral training in cellular neurophysiology at Washington University School of Medicine. Her major contributions to the field include establishing a causal link between amygdala plasticity and changes in persistent pain-related behaviors and demonstrating a hemispheric lateralization of amygdala function for pain processing. More recently, her team further showed that the amygdala has dual and opposite functions in the modulation of pain, functioning as a pain rheostat that can amplify or decrease pain. In addition to her scientific contributions, Dr. Carrasquillo is also strongly committed to mentoring and training, increasing diversity and inclusion in science, and promoting rigor, transparency, and reproducibility in research. She has received multiple awards for her contributions to the field, including the STEM Woman of the Year Award from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in 2016 and been listed in “100 Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx Scientists in America” in 2020 by the scientific blog Cell Mentor (Cell Press).