Daryl Pinion Fields II, MD, PhD, joined the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery in July of 2018. He completed his undergraduate degree at Saint John’s University (Collegeville, Minn.), and his medical degree as well as research doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

Prior to medical school Dr. Fields held several leadership positions as a firefighter captain and medic. In addition, he spent several years as a neural rehab personal trainer managing clients with debilitating neuromuscular disorders; including stroke, brain trauma, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. These experiences have inspired both his research and clinical interest in spinal neurorestorative therapies. 

Dr. Fields has been recognized with several nationally competitive awards and fellowships from the National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation in addition to funding from private organizations such as the National Football League, Pittsburgh Steelers, Merck Pharmaceuticals and Live Like Lou Foundation. 

Katherine Giordano earned her BS in Biology and Neuroscience from DePaul University in 2016. She completed her PhD in Clinical Translational Science at the University of Arizona in 2023. Her dissertation investigated neuroinflammatory mechanisms after diffuse TBI and she was supported by a predoctoral NRSA F31 award from the NINDS. Currently, Katherine is a postdoctoral researcher at the Phoenix VA Health Care System, where she investigates the intersection of intimate partner violence and TBI using clinical data, as well as TBI during pregnancy through both clinical and pre-clinical studies.

Dr. Anderson-Erisman is a Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the MetroHealth Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine.  Her research has focused on translational investigations and bridging the gap between basic science, clinical science, and the public community living with spinal cord injury (SCI).  Her training spans the spectrum of SCI research, from cellular and molecular studies, to whole animal and behavioral studies, to human clinical research.  A large area of her research has focused on obtaining the perspective of people living with SCI on various aspects of research, including functional priorities, acceptable benefits and risks, preferences for neuroprosthetics, and exercise participation to make research more relevant.  For this work she was awarded the Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize in 2021 and elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2023.  She has expertise in SCI outcome measures, multi-center clinical studies, and FDA-regulated Schwann cell transplantation clinical trials.  At MetroHealth-CWRU she is continuing her leadership in clinical trials for SCI and further developing her independent research efforts addressing issues important to people living with SCI with an emphasis on translational research to deploy treatments to the clinic.  She is currently the Director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model System of Care.  She was also a co-founder and the inaugural President of the North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium. 

Kristen Dams-O’Connor, Ph.D. is the Director of the Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC) of Mount Sinai, an internationally recognized program for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research and care. She is the Jack Nash Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance, and Professor of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). She completed a BA in Neuroscience at Colgate University, a PhD at the University at Albany, and predoctoral training at the Rusk Institute at NYU. She completed postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology and brain injury research and joined the faculty at ISMMS as an Assistant Professor in 2011.  

 Dr. Dams-O’Connor’s multidisciplinary program of research aims to improve long-term outcomes in individuals with TBI and repetitive head impacts sustained through sports, military service, and intimate partner violence (IPV). The Late Effects of TBI (LETBI) project is a longitudinal prospective TBI brain donor program that aims to characterize the clinical phenotype and postmortem pathological signatures of post-traumatic neurodegeneration to facilitate in-vivo diagnostics. The ‘Leveraging Existing Aging Research Networks to understand associations of TBI and AD (LEARN TBI-AD)’ project aims to harmonize data across 5 of the largest longitudinal studies of cognitive aging in the United States. The ENRICH Brain Health Focused Program Award spans 5 research projects investigating clinical and pathological signatures of post-traumatic neurodegeneration, psychological health decline, and suicide risk in civilians and Veterans with TBI. The New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System of care is one of 16 centers of excellence for TBI research and clinical care in the United States. Her research has been supported by federal grants from the DoD, NIH, NIDILRR, CDC, and PCORI. She has authored over 200 scientific publications and is the recipient of awards for her research, mentorship, and brain injury advocacy. 

Megan Huibregtse, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Grady Trauma Project in the Emory University School of Medicine. She studies neuroimaging and blood biomarkers of brain injury in trauma survivors, with an emphasis on sex differences and sex-specific associations with functional outcomes. Dr. Huibregtse is interested in how traumatic brain injuries and psychological stress interact to affect women’s brain health across the lifespan.

Mia Pacheco is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the McCreedy Lab at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on characterizing sex-dependent differences in the immune response to spinal cord injury. When not in the lab, she enjoys playing co-ed softball, training jiu jitsu, and playing with her three pets. 

Michael Grovola, Ph.D., is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Neurotrauma, Neurodegeneration, and Restoration at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. His research focuses on neuropathological and transcriptomic changes after traumatic brain injury (TBI), aiming to characterize mild TBI out to chronic timepoints and identify potential therapeutic targets. His research utilizes a rotational-acceleration induced TBI model in swine, which replicates the injury biomechanics of human TBI. His academic interests include the neuroinflammatory response and the role of microglia, the innate immune cells of the central nervous system, after TBI. 

Michael began research in spinal cord injury during his undergraduate research at the University of Tasmania. After graduating, Michael then completed his PhD with Norman Saunders at the University of Melbourne. In 2005, he began postdoctoral training at the Universities of Melbourne and then Florida, before being promoted to faculty in 2009. Michael accepted a position with the Spinal Cord Research Center at Drexel University in 2013, to continue his research into spinal cord injury, neuroplasticity and strategies to optimize repair and lasting functional recovery. Now a tenured Associate Professor, funded by the NIH and research foundations, Michael is actively pursuing cell therapies and rehabilitative strategies to promote recovery after cervical spinal cord injury. 

http://www.spinalrepair.org/cover-page/

Theresa Currier Thomas, PhD is the Director of the Translational Neurotrauma and Neurochemistry Laboratory at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. She was born in Kentucky and received her BS in Agricultural Biotechnology in 1999 from the University of Kentucky. She earned her PhD in Anatomy and Neurobiology in 2008 and continued as a postdoctoral fellow at the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center at the University of Kentucky. 

Dr. Currier Thomas’s primary research focuses on traumatic brain injury (TBI). She studies structural, functional, and molecular processes, with synaptogenesis as a keystone, which guides circuit reorganization over time and contributes to chronic deficits/symptoms after TBI. She tests pharmacological and rehabilitative strategies to mitigate these chronic deficits. She is also actively investigating the contribution of endocrine (hormone) dysregulation after TBI to understand causes and propose treatments for post-traumatic neurological deficits. Dr. Currier Thomas has demonstrated an early commitment to including females in TBI research publishing on sex differences in neurotransmission and the sequelae of TBI pathophysiology. These studies collaborate with researchers from the University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix, Phoenix, VA Healthcare System, Arizona State University, and Midwestern University. She also has a remarkable history of creating a community of diversity and inclusion through mentorship, networking, professional development, and education in her lab, department, university, Phoenix Valley, and National Neurotrauma Society engagement.