Dr. Kusiak received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.in 1975. He was a Staff Fellow and then Senior Staff Fellow at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, NIH. In 1980, he joined the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, National Institute on Aging, NIH as a Special Expert and was tenured as a Principal Investigator. He was Acting Chief of this Laboratory from 1995-1997 and he headed the Molecular Neurobiology Unit in this Laboratory from 1992-2002. In 2002 Dr. Kusiak became Deputy Chief of the Research Resources Branch, National Institute on Aging. In 2003, Dr. Kusiak joined the Center for Integrative Biology and Infectious Diseases of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), NIH as Director for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Program. The research portfolio of this program covered orofacial pain disorders with a focus on temporomandibular joint disorders and chronic overlapping pain conditions. He was Acting Chief of the Integrative Biology and Infectious Diseases Branch from 2014 to 2015. In 2015, he was appointed as the Acting Deputy Director of NIDCR, NIH and served in this position until his retirement in 2018. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of The TMJ Association. He serves as a Co-chair of the MDEpiNet TMJ Patient-Led RoundTable.