Rodney Samaco, PhD

Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer | Executive Team

Image Description: Headshot photo of Rodney Samaco, a smiling man with black hair, dark brown eyes, wearing a black suit, grey shirt, and black tie.

Dr. Rodney Samaco is the Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD). With over 20 years of experience in academic research focused on rare genetic intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities, Rodney leverages his strategic perspectives, domain expertise, and extensive track record of securing funding and resources to strengthen ongoing AUCD network endeavors, build team science initiatives, and drive the success of new business development, partnerships, and collaborations across diverse groups, disciplines and sectors.

Prior to joining AUCD, Rodney was the Co-Director (MPI) of the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC), one of 15 nationally recognized IDDRC's funded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development. He also established and directed a scientific research laboratory in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine and the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital. Here, he pioneered a framework for research readiness in the preclinical development of potentially transformative medicines for rare genetic, clinically severe neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Within the AUCD Network, Rodney has served in the past as Vice Chair and Chair of the Council on Research and Evaluation (CORE), which primed him to help develop a notable contribution to the IDDRC Network. In collaboration with Drs. John Constantino of Emory University School of Medicine and Leonard Abbeduto of the UC Davis MIND Institute, and AUCD’s Executive Director John Tschida, Rodney drafted the AUCD-IDDRC Task Force Charter in 2022, which describes facilitating communication, collaboration, and action among IDDRCs, AUCD staff, and other partners of the AUCD network including LENDs, and UCEDDs in identified priority areas. He is an advocate for team science and community engaged approaches. Building upon his proven record of skills and significant collective experiences, Rodney aims to advance research inclusivity for all within the disability community, and foster the research readiness and acumen of the AUCD-affiliated Centers and Programs.

Rodney completed doctoral work in Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He completed his undergraduate degree in Genetics at University of California, Davis in Davis, CA.