Suzanne L. Groah, MD, MSPH; NCSCIMS Project Director
Suzanne Groah is the PI for the NCSCIMS, serving as the Project Director for the overall System of Care, Co-Chair of the Executive Committee, Co-Director of the Research Division, and Co-Director of the Acute Care Workgroup.
Dr. Groah is the Director of Consultation Liaison Service at NRH. She is the physician in charge of providing consults to newly-injured individuals in the acute care setting at WHC.
She is also the Director of SCI Research at NRH and has been awarded multiple federal grants, including the NIDRR-funded RRTC on SCI, with a focus on promoting health and preventing secondary complications through physical activity and exercise. She was appointed Assistant Professor at the Georgetown School of PM&R in 2005.
During her tenure at NRH, she has been instrumental in maintaining a link between acute SCI care at WHC and NRH and establishing a strong and diverse SCI research portfolio. Previously, she served as the Medical Director of SCI Rehabilitation at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, CA after completing 2 fellowships (1 in Aging with SCI, funded through Craig Hospital’s RRTC on Aging with an SCI; and 1 in Neurorehabilitation) at Craig Hospital.
Dr. Groah received her MD from the Medical College of Virginia, and her MSPH from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. She has a subspecialty certification in SCI, and has extensive experience in SCI rehabilitation, having published and presented nationally on related topics. She is currently serving as an expert panel member for the Paralyzed Veterans of American and has been integral in the development of their Clinical Practice Guidelines for Bladder Management after SCI.
Dr. Groah serves as the Project Director of the overall System of Care of the NCSCIMS to ensure an integrated and comprehensive program throughout the acute, rehabilitation, and follow-up care phases at NRH. As the Co-Chair of the Executive Committee with Dr. Healton, Dr. Groah provides overall direction for the NCSCIMS.
Together with Dr. DeJong, Dr. Groah directs the NCSCIMS Research Division that oversees the Practice-Based Evidence, SCI Navigator, and Modular research projects. With Dr Herr (see below) she directs the Acute Care Workgroup of the Clinical Services Division of the NCSCIMS and works towards facilitating relationships among EMS, ER, Trauma, Critical Care, and Neuroscience departments within WHC.
Acute Care Workgroup of the Clinical Services Division of the NCSCIMS
The Acute Care Workgroup (ACWG) is comprised of key Directors and Department heads from WHC who play an integral role in the provision of acute care as a part the NCSCIMS. The following individuals are key personnel of the multidisciplinary ACWG, who meet monthly to address NCSCIMS acute care goals and progress:
David Ciesla, MD – Director of Trauma Surgery, WHC
Daniel Herr, MD - Medical Director, Surgical Intensive Care Unit, WHC and AVP Scientific Affairs, MRI
Zachary Levine, MD – Director of Functional Neurosurgery, WHC
Ann Marie Madden, RN - Nursing Director for Critical Care and Emergency Services, WHC
Greg Marchand, MD - Associate Medical Director, MedSTAR Transport Services, Department of Emergency Medicine, WHC
Jill Schie, MS, OTR/L - Director, Acute Care Programs, NRH at WHC
John Starr, MD - Director of Spine Orthopedics, WHC
Lorelei Stellwag, RN - Department Head, Neurosciences, WHC
Sandeep Teja, MD - Associate Physician, Washington Brain and Spine Institute, WHC
Chris Wuerker, MD - Medical Director, MedSTAR Transport, Department of Emergency Medicine, WHC
Pamela Ballard, MD; NCSCIMS Executive Committee member, NCSCIMS Rehabilitation Workgroup Co-Director, NCSCIMS PBE-PU Project Co-PI
Pamela Ballard co-directs the Rehabilitation Care Workgroup of the Clinical Services Division of the NCSCIMS with Cathy Ellis, PT, and is a Co-Investigator on the Practice-Based Evidence project on the occurrence and prevention of PUs with Dr. DeJong. Dr. Ballard is currently the Medical Director of the SCI Program, Co-Director of the SCI Male Fertility Program, and Director of the Spasticity Clinic at NRH.
She has spent her entire educational and professional career in the Washington-Baltimore area and is acutely familiar with the community resources available to individuals with SCI. As a staff physiatrist at WHC and NRH since 1991, Dr. Ballard has been instrumental in the continual development and growth of the SCI Clinical Program and has been involved in numerous clinical trials. Additionally, she was recently appointed an Associate Professor at the Georgetown School of PM&R in 2005. Dr. Ballard received her MD from Howard University, and has a subspecialty certification in SCI.
Gerben DeJong, PhD; NCSCIMS Co-PI; NCSCIMS Co-Director Research Division; NCSCIMS Co-PI PBE-PU Project
Gerben DeJong is the Co-Principal Investigator of the Practice-Based Evidence project on the occurrence and prevention of decubitus ulcers, and co-directs the Research Division of the NCSCIMS with Dr. Groah. He is the director of the newly-formed Center for Post-acute Studies at NRH, and for 16 years served as the Director of NRH Research.
Dr. DeJong received his PhD in Public Policy from Brandeis University and has published over 200 scholarly articles and has presented on issues such as health care and outcomes for people with disabilities, the financing of health services, and the rehabilitation marketplace and associated practices. His extensive research portfolio has included rehabilitation outcomes, managed care and disability, and secondary health conditions.
Dr. DeJong is currently the PI of a research project with Dr. Susan Horn (see below) investigating the post-acute management of patients with hip and knee replacements in inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The methodology used in this study, which is taking a “best-practices” approach that identifies practice patterns associated with best outcomes across different types of patients and facilities, is the basis of the Practice-Based Evidence project proposed for the NCSCIMS.
Cathy Ellis, PT; NCSCIMS Director of Clinical Services Division; NCSCIMS Co-Director Rehabilitation Workgroup
Cathy Ellis directs the Clinical Services Division of the NCSCIMS and co-directs the Rehabilitation Care Workgroup of the Clinical Services Division with Dr. Ballard. Ms. Ellis is the of SCI Rehabilitation Clinical Coordinator at NRH, serving as the Director of Inpatient Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Therapeutic Recreation, and Vocational Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation Engineering. She is also the Director of Musculoskeletal Programs, and has 14 years of experience directing therapy services for SCI patients at NRH.
Ms. Ellis has 28 years of experience in acute, inpatient, outpatient and home care rehabilitation settings. She has been at NRH for over 20 years and is knowledgeable about and familiar with all inpatient rehabilitation and therapy services provided at NRH across the care continuum and among different settings. Ms. Ellis maintains the continuity of care within the NCSCIMS as a whole, and NRH specifically, and streamlines and integrates rehabilitation services for NRH SCI patients.
Brenda Gilmore, BFA; NCSCIMS Chair of Consumer Advisory Panel
Brenda Gilmore chairs the NCSCIMS Consumer Advisory Panel. She is currently the SCI Life Consultant/Educator for the NRH RRTC on SCI and as such lectures to health professionals locally and nationally about living with a SCI. She has also been integral in the NRH Peer Mentoring Program, providing leadership and guidance to our peer mentors as an African-American woman who has lived with an SCI for over 25 years.
Ms. Gilmore is a former nationally-ranked (#2) wheelchair tennis player, and a skillful business woman, having established her own non-profit foundation in Prince George’s county, Maryland, of which she is currently the Executive Director. The Prince George’s Tennis and Education Foundation (PGTEF) was founded in 1993 and strives to develop academic, athletic, and life skills through programs that foster self-esteem and academic achievement. PGTEF programs include tennis instruction, competition, mentoring, educational assistance, and scholarships.
Edward Healton, MD, MPH; NCSCIMS Executive Committee Co-Chair
Edward Healton co-chairs the Executive Committee of the NCSCIMS with Dr. Groah. Dr. Healton is currently the Sr. Vice-President for Medical Affairs and Medical Director of NRH and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Interim Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Georgetown University Hospital and Medical Center. He also serves as the Director of the NRH Research Division which encompasses all research activities at NRH, and is the Director of the NRH SCI Program. Dr. Healton completed his postgraduate training in Neurology in the Columbia University residency program at the Neurological Institute of New York, and has over 30 years of clinical, academic, and administrative management experience. He has extensive experience in medical education and training, previously overseeing 18 residency and fellowship training programs, and currently two residency and three fellowship training programs between NRH and Georgetown. As Co-Chair of the Executive Committee with Dr. Groah, Dr. Healton provides overall direction for the NCSCIMS.
Susan Horn, PhD; NCSCIMS PBE-PU Project Co-PI
Susan Horn is Co-Principal Investigator on the Practice-Based Evidence (PBE) project on the occurrence and prevention of decubitus ulcers with Dr. DeJong. She is currently a senior scientist, Institute for Clinical Outcomes Research (ICOR), and vice president research, International Severity Information Systems, Inc. (ISIS), Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, she is Adjunct Professor, Department of Medical Informatics, and Research Professor of Physical Therapy at University of Utah School of Medicine.
Dr. Horn received her PhD in statistics from Stanford University. In 1979, Dr. Horn began developing severity of illness measures, which became the basis for the Comprehensive Severity Index (CSI), with inpatient, outpatient, hospice, rehabilitation, and long-term care components for adults and pediatrics. The CSI measures disease-specific, physiologic severity data for clinical practice improvement (CPI) and risk-adjusted outcomes. Dr. Horn has conducted CPI studies in pediatric asthma, congestive heart failure, pressure ulcers, diabetes, hospice, post-stroke rehabilitation, and falls, and published over 150 papers. She is currently collaborating with Dr. DeJong on a research project investigating the post-acute management of patients with hip and knee replacements in inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), which uses the same methodology as the proposed Practice-Based Evidence project on the occurrence and prevention of decubitus ulcers.
Manon Lauderdale, MSE, PMP; NCSCIMS Knowledge Translation & Educational Media Manager
Manon Lauderdale is responsible for the overall coordination and integration of KT work across the Clinical-Research continuum of the NCSCIMS. She leads Translation and Dissemination operational efforts, is responsible for resource planning and productions, and works with Dr. Groah for strategic planning, quality, reporting and other evaluation activities.
Ms Lauderdale has a background in health care systems and education with advanced work in biomedical and systems engineering. She has held professional certification from the Project ManagementInstitute since 2003. Currently, she is pursuing doctoral studies in educational uses of technology. Before joining the Model System, Ms. Lauderdale was the Research Division Information Dissemination and Utilization Manager at NRH where she played a central role in defining knowledge translation as a discrete programmatic function.
Alexander Libin, PhD; NCSCIMS SCI Navigator Project PI
Alexander Libin is PI of SCI Navigator project. He has been a Senior Researcher with the NRH SCI Research Program for the past 3 years and is the Director of Training for the RRTC on SCI at NRH.
Dr. Libin received his PhD in Neuropsychology from the Institute of Psychology at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow in 1993, and postdoctoral training in General Psychology at George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia). Since 1998, Dr. Libin has served on the Research Faculty of the Department of Psychology at Georgetown University, and in 2009 was appointed an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Dr. Libin has worked as Project Director, Co-PI and PI on various disability and rehabilitation studies across diverse clinical groups including persons with Alzheimer's (1998-2001, TREA study funded by NIH), Parkinson's (2005-2008, COMPASS study funded by the DOD), traumatic brain injury and concussion (2005-2007, ANAM study funded by DOD), and SCI (2006-present, RRTC on SCI and NCSCIMS funded by NIDDR). He has published and presented on the topics of secondary conditions in SCI, disability awareness and medical education related to spinal cord trauma, and optimization of methodology for rehabilitation research.
Dr. Libin is currently PI of the Longitudinal Study on Secondary Conditions and Exercise, and Consumer-Professional Partnership for SCI Education, both projects of the RRTC on SCI. For the NCSCIMS, he oversees the SCI Navigator Project and provides support for qualitative and quantitative assessments, and implements analytic strategies for developing evidence-based outcomes of the study.