NANDSC Membership Roster

Dr. Koroshetz became Director of NINDS in June 2015. NINDS funds both research on basic neuroscience and studies of hundreds of neurological disorders. As Director, Dr. Koroshetz oversees an annual budget of $1.6 billion and a staff of more than 900 scientists, physicians-scientists, administrators.

Allan I. Basbaum, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair in the Department of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Basbaum's research examines the mechanisms through which tissue and nerve injury produce changes in the peripheral and central nervous system, resulting in persistent pain. Dr. Basbaum has been a board member and program chair of the American Pain Society. He is a recipient of the F. W. L. Kerr Memorial Award from the American Pain Society and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Prize for Distinguished Pain Research. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of Pain. Dr. Basbaum is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom). In addition, he is a fellow of the Royal Society in the United Kingdom. He has received three Jacob Javits Investigator Awards from NINDS.

Christopher Bever, Jr., M.D., is a professor in the departments of Neurology and Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. He is also the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Multiple Sclerosis Center of Excellence, East, and Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development at the Baltimore VA Maryland Health Care System. Dr. Bever earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester in New York. He is a member of the American Neurological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Neurology. His research focuses on developing therapies to treat the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. In addition, he is working with colleagues to develop robots to help with rehabilitation for neurological conditions.

Amy Brin is the Executive Director and CEO of the Child Neurology Foundation (CNF), where she is furthering her commitment to the pediatric neurology community. She has established CNF as a convening patient advocacy organization across 300 disease states, driving impactful patient education and support programming. Prior to becoming CEO of CNF, Ms. Brin served as an Advance Practice Nurse with BlueGrass Care Navigators. She is also the lead pediatric provider for community and tertiary care programs while also directing daily clinical operations. Ms. Brin has experience with strategic planning and crisis management and has participated in grant reviews with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Genetic Services Branch. She is Board-certified in Pediatrics as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and is Chair of the Epilepsy Leadership Council. She earned a Master of Science degree in Nursing from Vanderbilt University in 2007.

David L. Brody, M.D., Ph.D. is the director of the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine and a professor of neurology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Dr. Brody is a board-certified neurologist with both a research and a clinical specialization in traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases. He earned his medical degree and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Brody is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurotrauma and Acta Neuropathologica and a permanent member of the NIH Acute Neural Injury and Epilepsy study section. His research focuses on accelerating implications for better diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of traumatic brain injury in civilian and military populations.  

Robert Brown, Jr., D.Phil., M.D. (2025)

Robert Brown, Jr., is the Director of the University of Massachusetts Medical School Program for Neurotherapeutics. From 2008-2018, Dr. Brown served as Professor and Chair of Neurology at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine. His clinical interests include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), muscular dystrophy, and neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Brown served as Co-Chair of the Board of Scientific Counsellors at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke from 2018-2020. Dr. Brown has published numerous research articles, books, and reviews and received many honors throughout a career spanning over 40 years. Dr. Brown earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1975.

Dr. Carmichael is Chair and Professor, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Carmichael has clinical interests in stroke and neurorehabilitation, and how the brain repairs from injury. Dr. Carmichael was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow at UCLA from 1998-2001, studying mechanisms of axonal sprouting, with a clinical emphasis on neurorehabilitation and stroke. He has been on the UCLA faculty since 2001. Dr. Carmichael' s laboratory studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neural repair after stroke and other forms of brain injury. This research focuses on the processes of axonal sprouting and neural stem cell responses after stroke, and on neural stem cell transplantation. Dr. Carmichael is an attending physician on the Neurorehabilitation and Stroke clinical services at UCLA. He is also the recipient of the NINDS Javits award.

Dr. Farahany is the Director of the Duke Initiative for Science and Society, Faculty Chair of the MA in Bioethics and Science Policy, Robinson O. Everett Professor of Law and Philosophy at Duke University. Dr. Farahany is a leading scholar on the ethical, legal, and social implications of biosciences and emerging technologies, particularly those related to neuroscience and behavioral genetics. Her teaching and research areas of expertise are law and biology (behavioral genetics, genetics, neuroscience, psychiatry), and law and philosophy (wrongfulness, responsibility and punishment theory). She is a former member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of the Journal of Law and the Biosciences and an Editorial Board Member of the American Journal of Bioethics-Neuroethics.

Dr. Gitler is Professor, Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease, using yeast as a model system in combination with mouse models, human genetics and most recently, genome-wide CRISPR screens in human cells. He has received several honors and awards including an NINDS R35 research program award and an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

Dr. Kriegstein is currently the John Bowes Distinguished Professor in Stem Cell and Tissue Biology and Founding Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. Dr. Kriegstein’s own research focuses on the way in which neural stem and progenitor cells in the embryonic brain produce neurons, and ways in which this information can be used for cell-based therapies to treat diseases of the nervous system. His lab found that radial glial cells are neuronal stem cells in the developing brain, and also identified a second type of precursor cell produced by radial glial cells that is responsible for generating specific neuronal subtypes. He has recently begun to characterize the progenitor cells within the developing human brain, to determine the genetic profiles of specific progenitor populations, and to explore how these cells contribute to the huge expansion of neuron number that characterizes human cerebral cortex.

Claudia F. Lucchinetti, M.D., is Chair of the Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Lucchinetti is the Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science as well as the Dean of Clinical Translational Science at the Mayo Clinic Alix  School of Medicine. Her clinical focus includes inflammatory demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica and Balo's concentric sclerosis. In addition to her clinical activities, Dr. Lucchinetti is active in research and education, providing mentorship to residents and fellows. She authors expert content and publishes in high-impact scientific journals. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that drive tissue injury in multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica and other related disorders, with a focus on identifying new therapies. Dr. Lucchinetti is the recipient of the 2016 John Dystel Award from the National MS Society. She is also recognized with the distinction of a named professorship, the Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Professor of Neurosciences.

Dr. John Maunsell is the Albert D. Lasker Professor of Neurobiology and Director of the Grossman Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. Dr. Maunsell previously worked as a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. His research and scholarly interest areas include attention, vision, cerebral cortex, computation and optogenetics. Dr. Maunsell has published numerous research articles in the Journal of Neuroscience, Nature, and Visual Neuroscience throughout his career. He has received many awards, including grant funding from the NIH since the late 1980s. Dr. Maunsell is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Society for Neuroscience. He earned his Ph.D. in Biology at the California Institute of Technology in 1982.

Kenneth I. Maynard, Ph.D., is Director of the Global Program Team Effectiveness, R&D Center of Operational Performance, with Takeda Development Center Americas, Inc. Dr. Maynard is a consummate professional whose leadership combines academic and pharmaceutical business, research and development experience. He is an elected fellow of the Stroke Council of the American Heart Association. He is also a member of the Engineering and Medicine Next Generation Researchers Initiative Committee of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Louise McCullough is Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center McGovern Medical School. She is also Chief of the Neurology Service at Memorial Hermann Hospital, Texas Medical Center. Previously, Dr. McCullough was Professor and Director of Stroke Research and Education at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Dr. McCullough is a world leader in the area of cerebral vascular disease and was the recipient of an NINDS Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award. She currently serves as a member of the American Heart Association Science Advisory and Coordinating Committee as well as the Northeast Cerebrovascular Consortium. Dr. McCullough has authored or co-authored over 200 papers, received many honors and awards, and given numerous presentations both nationally and internationally. Dr. McCullough received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Connecticut in 1992 and her M.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in 1996.

Eileen M. Murray has been Executive Director at the American Epilepsy Society (AES) since December 2013. Prior to joining the AES, she was Deputy Executive Director of the American Academy of Dermatology for six years, as well as a member of the executive management team. Ms. Murray spent nine years with the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) as Vice President and Executive Director of the AHIMA Foundation and was responsible for development, research, and government contracts. She has more than 30 years’ experience in association and non-profit management and leadership and holds a Master’s in Marketing and Public and Non-Profit Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business, Northwestern University.

Dr. Gina Poe is Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her laboratory focuses primarily on the mechanisms by which sleep traits serve learning and memory consolidation. Memories are encoded by the pattern of synaptic connections between neurons and memory difficulties involved in post-traumatic stress disorder, Schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and even autism involve abnormalities in the sleep-dependent memory consolidation process. Dr. Poe’s broad knowledge of neuroscience, psychiatry, and molecular/integrative physiology will be extremely valuable in Council deliberations. Dr. Poe received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Ekemini Riley is Founder and CEO of the Coalition for Aligning Science, LLC. She is the Managing Director of the Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) global initiative seeking to advance targeted basic research for Parkinson's Disease. Prior to becoming the CEO of the Coalition for Aligning Science, Dr. Riley spent 6 years at the Milken Institute spearheading and designing the plans for a philanthropically funded $12M Neurofibromatosis gene therapy initiative, aimed at funding novel proof-of-concept studies. She has experience with bringing diverse groups together to design solutions and work towards common goals across nonprofit, academia, government, pharma and philanthropy. She led a convening that resulted in a citywide organ donation awareness campaign, Play It Forward Pittsburgh. Dr. Riley received her Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Timothy Aidan Ryan, Ph.D. is Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry, Weill Cornell Medical College. In addition, he is a HHMI Janelia Senior Fellow. The focus of his laboratory is the study of the molecular basis of synaptic transmission in the mammalian brain. The laboratory’s primary interests lie in understanding the regulation of vesicle traffic in presynaptic terminals, and how this traffic impacts presynaptic function. His research areas include membrane biology, molecular and cellular basis of disease, molecular neuroscience, optical methods, and structural biology. He received an NINDS Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award in 2016. Dr. Ryan’s subject matter expertise and his familiarity with NINDS procedures will be invaluable in Council deliberations. Dr. Ryan received his Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Sameer A. Sheth, M.D., Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Vice-Chair, Clinical and Translational Research, Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine. As a clinician, Dr. Sheth treats patients with disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He uses a combination of established, evidence-based techniques and new minimally invasive approaches, including deep brain stimulation, laser therapy, robot-guided surgery, radiosurgery, and other neurosurgical procedures. As a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, he is developing novel therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders and studies the neurophysiological basis of how the human brain makes complex decisions. Dr. Sheth’s combination of basic and clinical expertise will be critical to Council discussions of multiple neurological disorders. Dr. Sheth received his Ph.D. and M.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

N. Edwin Trevathan, M.D., M.P.H., holds the Amos Christie Chair in Global Health and is the Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health. He is also a Professor of Pediatrics in Neurology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Prior to assuming this appointment, Dr. Trevathan served in several leadership positions, including Director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Professor and Director of the Division of Pediatric Neurology at Washington University in St. Louis. As a pediatric neurologist and epidemiologist, Dr. Trevathan's research interests include maternal-child epidemiology, epidemiology of childhood neurological disorders, and clinical trials of treatments of neurological disorders. Dr. Trevathan has authored or co-authored over 100 clinical and scientific publications.

Christin L. Veasley is Co-founder and Director of the Chronic Pain Research Alliance (CPRA) which is the country’s first and only research-led collaborative advocacy effort dedicated to changing the lives of those with chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs). The mission is to promote high quality research on COPCs, translate research findings into information for patients and educational training programs for clinicians, and drive the development of safe and effective treatments for these conditions. Ms. Veasley has lived with life-altering chronic pain since surviving a near-fatal accident in her teens. Her childhood health experiences led her to pursue a science degree, time conducting neuroscience research at Johns Hopkins Medical School and to the research advocacy community. Ms. Veasley has spent her life advocating for the improvement and acceleration of rigorous multidisciplinary pain research.