Coleen M. Atkins, Ph.D. is currently 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 received her undergraduate degree in 1993 from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, with an honors thesis conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Chapman. She was one of the first to start using the Morris water maze and investigated the effects of nitric oxide signaling on learning and memory.  In 1999, she received her doctorate in Neuroscience under the training of Dr. David Sweatt at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, studying the molecular mechanisms of learning and memory.  Dr. Atkins’ post-doctoral training was completed at Oregon Health & Sciences University with Dr. Thomas Soderling, studying the role of CaMKII in short versus long-term synaptic plasticity.  Dr. Atkins’ joined the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to train with Dr. Dalton Dietrich studying traumatic brain injury.