Medical Advisory Board

Gregory W. Albers, MD
Dr. Albers is the Coyote Foundation Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California. He has been the Director of the Stanford Stroke Center at Stanford University Medical Center since 1992. He also is Director of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Vascular Neurology Residency Training Program at Stanford University Medical Center. Dr. Albers earned his MD at the University Of California School of Medicine in San Diego. He completed his internship at the Stanford University Medical Center and his residency at Stanford University Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences. His fellowship in cerebrovascular disease was also conducted at Stanford University Medical Center. Dr. Albers has directed over 75 clinical stroke trials and authored or coauthored more than 200 articles, book chapters, and monographs concerning stroke and related topics. His articles have been published in journals such as Annals of Neurology, Neurology, JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Albers has authored numerous national and international stroke guidelines and is a Senior Editor of the ACCP Consensus Guidelines on Antithrombotic therapy. He has given frequent national and international invited presentations on cerebrovascular disorders. He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Medical Association, the Bay Area Stroke Society, the American Neurological Association, the National Stroke Association, and the American Heart Association Council on Stroke. Dr. Albers is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Lysia Forno Award for Teaching Excellence presented by Stanford University Medical Center. He is listed in Best Doctors in America, Best Doctors in Silicon Valley, and Best Bay Area Doctors.

Kyra J. Becker, MD
Dr. Becker is a stroke and critical care neurologist and Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Washington. She is currently Co-Director of the University of Washington Stroke Center of Harborview Hospital. Her academic training included a research fellowship in stroke at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Becker's basic research interests are focused on immune-mediated brain injury in acute stroke, and she currently holds several grants to study lymphocyte-mediated brain injury in stroke. Dr. Becker's work in inflammatory mechanisms in brain injury following stroke earned her the American Heart Association's Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke, as well as a patent for the work.

Rodney D. Bell, MD
Dr. Bell is Professor of Neurology at Thomas Jefferson University; and Director of the Division of Neurological Critical Care, and Co-Director of the Neurosensory Intensive Care Unit at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He is the program director for resident training as well as the fellowships in Vascular Neurology and Neuro-critical care. Dr. Bell founded the Jefferson Cerebrovascular Center in 1985, and co-founded the Philadelphia Stroke Council, a grass roots organization dedicated to improving stroke care in the Philadelphia area. In these roles, Dr. Bell has been active in public and physician education for the prevention of stroke. Dr. Bell's research focuses on clinical trials of pharmacological treatments for acute stroke. He has also been involved in new treatments such as brain perfusion in acute stroke patients. He is currently focusing on the critical care management of stroke.

Joseph P. Broderick, MD
Dr. Joseph Broderick is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center since 2000 and a full-time member of the Department since 1987. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati Medical School in 1982 where he ranked first in his medical school class. He received his medical neurologic training and completed a Cerebrovascular fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Broderick is an internationally recognized expert on the acute treatment of stroke and epidemiology of stroke and has had extensive involvement with hemorrhagic stroke. He is currently the Director of the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Stroke Team and Cerebrovascular Research Program at the University of Cincinnati. He has over 460 publications and has received numerous awards including the 2003 William M. Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke from the Stroke Council of the American Stroke Association. He also has been named as one of the Best Heart & Stroke Physicians in the United States by Good Housekeeping and one of Best Doctors in America (National Survey – Woodward-White).

Sandra Kopit Cohen, MD
Dr. Cohen is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Manhattan and on the faculty of Weill-Cornell Medical School and The New York Presbyterian Hospital, where she teaches Administrative Psychiatry. Dr. Cohen’s expertise includes organizational and occupational psychiatry, and psychoneuroimmunology. She is working to integrate modern technology, such as the Internet, with traditional communication methods to educate professional and public audiences. Dr. Cohen has designed professional conferences in several areas, including organizational and occupational psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and women’s health, and has created community outreach programs to improve public access to psychoanalytic information and treatment.

Pamela W. Duncan, PhD, PT, FAPTA FAHA
Dr. Duncan, is a nationally and internationally renowned physical therapist, epidemiologist and faculty member of Duke University. She is a Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy in the Department of Community and Family Medicine and a Professor and Bette Busch Maniscalco Research Fellow. Her secondary appointment is Senior Fellow at the Duke Center for Clinical Health Policy Research. She leads funded research programs on assessment of stroke outcomes, patterns of recovery, and randomized clinical trials on rehabilitation intervention. She is currently PI of a multi-site phase III clinical trial to evaluate walking recovery programs for persons post-stroke.

Larry B. Goldstein, MD
Dr. Goldstein is Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at Duke University and the Durham VA Medical Center; Director of the Duke Center for Cerebrovascular Disease and the Duke Stroke Center, and Senior Fellow in the Duke Center for Clinical Health Policy Research and Education. Dr. Goldstein's interests include primary and secondary stroke prevention, optimizing poststroke recovery, and improving the systems of delivery of stroke-related care. His laboratory work has focused on pharmacological effects on recovery after focal brain injury. Dr. Goldstein is PI for a multi-center study of pharmacotherapy for post-stroke recovery. He serves on leadership and oversight committees for multi-center clinical trials, and is an active leader in voluntary health organizations focused on stroke and cardiovascular disease.

Philip B. Gorelick, MD, MDH, FACP
Dr. Gorelick is the John S. Garvin Professor and Head, Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, and Director of the Center for Stroke Research, Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation, University of Illinois College of Medicine. Dr. Gorelick has numerous publications in the areas of stroke prevention and risk factor identification, vascular dementia, and stroke in African Americans. He has received continuous funding from the US National Institute of Health (NIH) from1987-2005. He has led two important NIH initiatives, The African American Antiplatelet Stroke Prevention Study, a recurrent stroke prevention clinical trial, and Risk Markers for Dementia After Stroke, an advanced imaging study to determine epidemiologic and MRI markers for vascular dementia and vascular cognitive impairment. Dr. Gorelick is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Neuroepidemiology; a member of the Editorial Board of Stroke; a recipient of the National Stroke Association (NSA) Visionary in Practice Society Award 2000, the William Feinberg Excellence in Clinical Stroke 2004, the Golden Apple and AOA Teacher of the Year Awards; past Chair of the NSA Stroke Prevention Advisory Board and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Affiliate of the American Heart Association; and a recipient of a Good Housekeeping Citation for one of the top US stroke physicians. Also, he has been awarded the Gainey Lectureship at Mayo Clinic in 2005 and the Henry Barnett Lectureship in Canada in 2005, and is presently the Chair of the International Stroke Conference of the American Heart Association; a member of the American Stroke Association Stroke Advisory Board; and a member of the National Stroke Association Board of Directors.

James C. Grotta, MD
Dr. Grotta is Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston where he also occupies the Roy M. and Phyllis Gough Huffington Distinguished Chair. He is also Professor and Director of the Stroke Program, University of Texas. Dr. Grotta received his education at Dartmouth College and his medical training at the Universities of Virginia and Colorado, and the Massachusetts General Hospital, spent 2 years in the US Public Health Service (Indian Health Service), and first joined the University of Texas - Houston Medical School faculty in 1979. His research focuses on development of new therapies for acute stroke patients. He has played a leadership role in many laboratory and human research studies, including the pivotal NINDS TPA study that established the usefulness of TPA (tissue plasminogen activator) for stroke patients, still the only treatment proven effective for reversing damage after a stroke occurs. He is presently carrying out a series of novel pilot studies aimed at amplifying the existing benefits of TPA, achieving clinically meaningful neuroprotection using a therapeutic combination strategy, augmenting stroke recovery by intensifying the existing rehabilitation paradigm, and introducing an educational program to middle school children. Dr. Grotta has orchestrated development of a very successful collaborative network between UT, Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston Fire Department-Emergency Medical Services, and other regional stroke centers to increase the delivery of appropriate therapy to a large number of acute stroke patients in Houston. He has extended these efforts to rural areas through regional educational programs and, more recently, telemedicine. Finally, Dr. Grotta directs an NIH funded and ACGME accredited stroke training program with a strong emphasis on basic and clinical research. He has assembled a multidisciplinary stroke faculty that has graduated 38 clinician scientists. Dr. Grotta was a recipient of the Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke from the American Heart Association (AHA) in 1999, the AHA Physician of the Year award for 2006, and awards for teaching excellence at UT Medical School for 14 years. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He also periodically participates in medical relief work in under-served areas of the world.

Patricia D. Hurn, PhD
Dr. Hurn is Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs, Professor and Vice Chair for Research Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Director, OHSU Research Center for Gender Medicine School of Medicine Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. She is a cerebrovascular physiologist with specific research interests in gender differences and the role of sex steroids in brain injury. Dr. Hurn's research team has explored extensively the role of estrogen in protecting the brain-at-risk for stroke. Her work is focused on cellular mechanisms of brain damage in stroke, with particular emphasis on the role of female reproductive steroids, estrogen and progesterone. Dr. Hurn currently holds five active grants to study stroke, three of which are centered on gender differences in stroke and on estrogen as a protective agent in brain injury. Her laboratory also collaborates with industry to test novel estrogen pharmaceutical compounds in animal-based stroke models.

Chelsea Kidwell, MD
Chelsea S. Kidwell, MD is Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology and Medical Director of the Georgetown Stroke Center and the Washington Hospital Center Stroke Center. Dr. Kidwell received her MD at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. She completed her neurology residency as well as fellowship training in stroke and vascular neurology at UCLA. Her active research interests include advancing novel treatments for acute stroke, developing innovative approaches to secondary stroke prevention, and employing neuroimaging techniques to understand stroke pathophysiology and optimize acute therapies. Dr. Kidwell was the 1999 recipient of the Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke and the 2002 recipient of the Michael S. Pessin Stroke Leadership Prize. Dr. Kidwell currently serves as the Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded MR and Recanalization of Stroke Clots Using Embolectomy (MR RESCUE) trial. Dr. Kidwell has authored or co authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications, 20 invited chapters and reviews, and over 90 abstracts.

Steven J. Kittner, MD, MPH
Dr. Kittner is Professor of Neurology and Director of the Maryland Stroke Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, in Baltimore, Maryland. He has numerous publications in the areas of stroke risk factors and prevention, particularly novel risk factors and the epidemiology of stroke in young adults. His work established the post partum period as a time of increased stroke risk, rather than pregnancy per se. He has been Principal Investigator of grants from the NIH, CDC, AHA, and the VA related to the epidemiology and genetics of stroke, including the Stroke Prevention in Young Women Study. He served as a consultant to NIH on its Oral Contraceptive and Stroke Risk Program and to the FDA on Stroke Risk associated with Phenylpropanolamine. He was a member of the International Headache Society Task Force on Migraine, Oral Contraceptives, and Hormone Replacement Therapy. Currently, he is a member of the Stroke Statistics Subcommittee of the American Heart Association. He received the Golden Hammer Award for Dedication to Patient Care and Excellence in Neurologic Care from the residents at the University of Maryland and was elected as member of the American Neurological Association and the American Epidemiological Society.

Laura Lennihan, MD
Dr. Lennihan, a Harvard- and Cornell-educated neurologist affiliated with Columbia University, is a leading expert on stroke recovery and rehabilitation. She was Chief of Neurology and Director of Stroke Rehabilitation at Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw, N.Y. from 1989-2006. She is now Chief of Inpatient Services for the Department of Neurology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. She is also Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Lennihan's research interests focus on post-stroke recovery, including pharmacologic enhancement of stroke recovery, efficacy of stroke rehabilitation techniques and prevention of recurrent strokes. She is the Principal Investigator on an ongoing study to assess the effects of amphetamines on cognitive recovery following stroke. She has also been involved in numerous other scientific investigations related to stroke recovery and prevention, including several funded by the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders, an arm of the National Institutes of Health.

Randolph S. Marshall, MS, MD, FAHA
Dr. Marshall is Professor of Neurology at Columbia University Medical Center and Acting Director of the Stroke Division in the Department of Neurology. Dr. Marshall obtained his undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1982 and his medical degree from the University of California in 1988, including an MD degree from UC San Francisco and a Master's degree in sociolinguistics from UC Berkeley. He completed his neurology residency in 1992 at Columbia and subsequently trained as a clinical and research fellow in cerebrovascular diseases at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. His clinical work focuses on the treatment and prevention of stroke and related cerebrovascular disorders. He has been continuously funded from the NIH with a research program that investigates the hemodynamic and physiological mechanisms of acute stroke and stroke recovery, with emphasis on the functional neuroimaging correlates of brain plasticity and recovery after injury. He has also been involved in restorative treatment modalities after brain injury. Current NIH grants include a Program Project (SPOTRIAS) grant from NINDS to advance treatment and diagnosis of acute stroke. He is the Principal Investigator of one of the SPOTRIAS projects, a functional MRI study in acute stroke patients to identify patterns of brain activity that predict subsequent recovery of function, as well as the Principal Investigator of a multi-center clinical trial to assess the effects of extracranial-intracranial bypass surgery on cognition in patients with cerebral blood flow impairment from carotid artery occlusion. He sits on the New York City Stroke Directors Committee and is a member of the New York State Department of Health Stroke Advisory Council.

Lewis B. Morgenstern, MD
Dr. Morgenstern is Director of the Stroke Program at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor Michigan, USA. He is Professor of Neurology, Emergency Medicine and Neurosurgery at the University of Michigan Medical School and Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Dr. Morgenstern is Medical Director of the Stroke Unit at University Hospital in Ann Arbor. He received his MD from the University of Michigan with Distinction in Research. He did his neurology residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and then a stroke fellowship at the University of Texas at Houston. Dr. Morgenstern is an NIH funded Principal Investigator in studies that aim to reduce stroke health disparities with respect to race, ethnicity and gender. Dr. Morgenstern’s research group has published studies identifying gender-specific disparities with respect to stroke symptoms, and differences in quality of stroke care. Dr. Morgenstern’s other research focus is on the treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage, and mobilizing health care professionals and communities to treat acute ischemic stroke. He has an extensive publication record. Dr. Morgenstern is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Heart Association and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal STROKE.

Ralph L. Sacco, MD, MS, FAAN, FAHA
Dr. Sacco is the Olemberg Family Chair in Neurological Disorders, Chairman of the Department of Neurology, and Miller Professor of Neurology, Epidemiology, and Human Genetics at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. He is Chief of the Neurology Service at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He has previously served as Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology, Director of the Stroke and Critical Care Division, and Associate Chair of Neurology at the Neurological Institute of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, and the New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Sacco has also served as the Director of the Northern Manhattan Stroke Study, a seminal study tracking the incidence of stroke in ethnic minorities. He has been the PI of multiple NIH-funded studies since 1989 focused on stroke in minorities, including Stroke Incidence and Prognosis in a Mixed Ethnic Region, Epidemiological Study of Stroke Outcome in Three Ethnic Groups, and the Family Study of Stroke Risk and Carotid Atherosclerosis. He is a co- investigator of five other NINDS grants including the former principal investigator of the New York Columbia Collaborative Specialized Program on Translational Research in Acute Stroke. He is the author on more than 300 papers, chapters, reviews and abstracts. He is past-President of the NYC Regional Board of Directors of the American Heart Association, Chair of the Stroke Advisory Committee and member of the AHA National Board of Directors, past chair of the Clinical Research SubCommittee of the American Academy of Neurology, and also a member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Neurology. He is also a member of the American Neurological Association., He is a past member of the FDA Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drug Advisory Panel, and past member of the NINDS Training Grant and Career Development Review Panel and Epidemiology and Disease Control-3 Study Section for NIH.

Jeffrey L. Saver, MD
Dr. Saver is Director of the UCLA Stroke Center and Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Saver received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1981, and is a graduate of the Harvard-Longwood Neurology Training Program, the University of Iowa Fellowship Program in Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Brown University Fellowship Program in Vascular Neurology. An author or co-author of over 100 research articles, Dr. Saver's research interests are in acute stroke treatment, stroke prevention, neuroimaging, clinical trial design, and neurocognitive consequences of stroke. He has served on the editorial boards of leading scientific journals, in leadership positions of international clinical trials, and on national committees on formulating guidelines for stroke care. He is currently chair of the American Stroke Association's Stroke Scientific Statement Oversight Committee, immediate past chair of the American Stroke Association Western States Stroke Task Force; principal investigator of the NIH-NINDS funded Field Administration of Stroke Magnesium (FAST-MAG) clinical trial; principal investigator of the NIH-NINDS UCLA Specialized Program of Translational Research in Acute Stroke; editorial board member for the journals Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, Journal of Neuroimaging, and Reviews in Neurological Disease; associate editor of the online textbooks Medlink Neurobase and Emedicine Neurology; and Co-Chair of the UCLA Stroke PROTECT systematic secondary prevention program.

Donald G. Stein, PhD
Dr. Stein is a neuroscientist and Asa G. Candler Professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Stein served Emory for five years as Vice Provost for Graduate Studies, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and acting Vice President for Research. He also served in a similar capacity at Rutgers University before joining the faculty at Emory. For more than 40 years, his research has focused on examining the processes underlying recovery of function after traumatic injury to the brain. Dr. Stein's lab was one of the first to demonstrate sex differences in the outcome of severe injuries to the frontal cortex, and how recovery was related to the hormonal state of females at the time of injury. Most recently this work culminated in the first successful clinical trial with progesterone in moderate to severe acquired brain injury. Patients given progesterone for 4 days post-injury had almost 60% less mortality and significantly better functional outcomes than patients given state-of-the-art treatment and placebo. His current research focuses on determining the physiological substrates responsible for progesterone's beneficial effects in the treatment of both permanent and transient ischemic stroke. He is past president of the International Brain Injury Association and serves currently on the National Advisory Council to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

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