NED is updating preferred name information in compliance with HHS policy, as mandated by Executive Order (EO) 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."
This update supports HHS policy requirements by removing "Nicknames" from the NIH Outlook Global Address List (GAL) and ensuring consistency across all NIH systems. The effort includes:
- Preferred name removal from NED and other systems that use NED
Previously entered preferred name information is being cleared in the NED database. This process will take approximately one week. Preferred name information will not be visible to other systems that use NED after they are cleared.
- NED User Interface changes
After NED release 7.2 is deployed (planned 3/29/2025), users can no longer enter or modify preferred names in the NED Portal. Also, users can no longer search on or view a preferred name in NED.
Effective immediately, users are asked not to enter or modify their preferred name information in NED as any entries will need to be cleared and removed again.
Please be aware that any change to your legal name in NED will trigger a new background check and a new HHS badge request. You will need to show proof of your name with two forms of identification to the Division of Personnel Security and Access Control to receive a new badge.
Systems that utilize the NED preferred name, will see a change to legal name in the system.
For technical questions or concerns, please contact NEDteam@mail.nih.gov.
Please contact your Executive Officer for other questions.
