Sarah Sheppard is a clinical tenure-track investigator at NICHD and a NIH Distinguished Scholar. She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelors of science in Nuclear Science and Engineering. She attained her medical degree and doctorate through a combined MD PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. During her doctorate, Dr. Sheppard studied post-transcriptional regulation of vascular development in the zebrafish in the laboratory of Dr. Nathan Lawson. She then completed her combined pediatrics and clinical genetics residency at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Following her clinical training, she practiced as a clinical geneticist in Division of Human Genetics, the Comprehensive Vascular Anomalies Program, and the Jill and Mark Fishman Center for Lymphatic Disorders at CHOP. She completed a Masters of Translational Research at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Hakon Hakonarson in the Center of Applied Genomics at CHOP. Her post-doctoral work focused on improving diagnosis and treatment for patients with a type of lymphatic disorder called central conducting lymphatic anomaly. The primary goal of Dr. Sheppard's translational research group is to develop more efficacious therapies for individuals with malformations of the lymphatic system. Her accolades include a NICHD Scientific Award. In addition to the NIH, her research has been funded by the American Heart Association, Uplifting Athletes, and the Lymphangiomatosis and Gorham's Disease Alliance.