Coleen M. Atkins, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She also serves as a Research Health Scientist at the Bruce Carter Miami VA Healthcare System. Dr. Atkins earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Minnesota and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Oregon Health & Sciences University and the University of Miami. Dr. Atkins’s research focuses on developing therapeutic strategies to address cognitive dysfunction following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Her current projects include investigating synaptic loss after TBI in Alzheimer’s disease mouse models and studying the impact of early life stress on recovery from mild TBI. Additionally, Dr. Atkins is exploring novel drug treatments under clinical development to mitigate acute pathology after TBI and enhance learning and memory recovery. Beyond her research, Dr. Atkins is dedicated to supporting trainees in biomedical research. She serves as Associate Dean of Graduate Education at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and is the founder of the Miami Brain Fair, an initiative she launched as President of the Miami Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience.