Meet the UW TBI Model System Personnel
Kathleen R. Bell, M.D., Project Director
Kathleen R. Bell, M.D. is a Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and has been the Chief of Service for UWMC Rehabilitation since February 2006. She is an attending physician for the acute rehabilitation inpatient unit and has been the Medical Director of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program at UWMC since l996.
Dr. Bell has been the Project Director for the UW TBI Model System for the past four years and previously the Co-Project Director. Her research interests have included efficacy of telephone counseling, sleep and pain disorders in TBI, the treatment of depression after TBI, and medical education. She was the PI for a CDC funded study on telephone interventions and follow-up in mild TBI. In addition, Dr. Bell is conducting a multi-center study on telephone intervention in moderate to severe TBI, funded by NIDRR.
Dr. Bell is on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation and was an invited participant in the CDC Experts Panel on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. She is currently on the Executive Board of the Brain Injury Association of Washington and recently chaired the AAPMR Subcommittee for Subspecialization in Acquired Brain Injury.
...more about Dr. Bell
Sureyya S. Dikmen, Ph.D., Project Co-Director
Sureyya Dikmen is a Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, and Adjunct
Professor in the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
Dr. Dikmen is one of the founding members of the UW TBI Model System, and is very active on the Research and Data Collection teams of TBIMS.
Dr. Dikmen received the 2000 William Caveness Award by the Brain Injury Association of America, and is on three editorial boards of major neuropsychology journals. She has collaborated with Dr. Temkin (also an investigator in this Model System) for over 20 years on natural history studies as well as clinical trials attempting to reduce the negative consequences of TBI.
Dr. Dikmen has been frequently invited to serve on expert panels related to TBI research, and on helping establish practice guidelines by CDC, International Brain Injury association and NIH. She has been published in multiple journals. Dr. Dikmen served on the Board of Directors of the International Neuropsychological Society and the Professional Advisory Boards of the Brain Injury Association of Washington and the Epilepsy Association of Western Washington.
Her research interests include the natural history of neuropsychological and psychosocial outcome and the recovery and prediction of the functions after TBI, Methylphenidate (Ritalin) for working memory in TBI, Executive Function and TBI, Post-traumatic seizures in TBI, Magnesium Sulfate as a neuroprotectant, Sertraline for treatment of depression in TBI.
Charles Bombardier, Ph.D., Co-Project Investigator
Chuck Bombardier is the Project Director for the Northwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model System and a co-investigator for the University of Washington TBI Model System. He is a clinical psychologist and a Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine within the University of Washington School of Medicine. For more than 10 years he has specialized in the acute rehabilitation of persons with traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and stroke.
Dr. Bombardier is currently the Principal Investigator on a NIH grant studying the prevalence and treatment of depression following TBI. This grant includes a double-blind randomized clinical trial of sertraline (Zoloft) versus placebo for treating depression after TBI.
Dr. Bombardier has directed NIDRR, CDC, NIAAA, and NIH grants or projects. He has also published in the areas of: Predicting functional outcomes in persons with chronic medical conditions, Adjustment to chronic medical conditions, Neuropsychological impairments in persons with alcohol problems and TBI, Preventing alcohol problems among persons with TBI.
His research interests include studying the effects of alcohol and drug abuse in persons with TBI, Spinal Cord Injuries and Multiple Sclerosis, Depression in persons with neurological conditions, Exercise/health promotion among persons with disabilities.
Peter Esselman, M.D., Co-Project Investigator
Peter Esselman is a Professor and Acting Chair in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. Dr. Esselman's clinical interests lie in traumatic brain injury and burn injury rehabilitation. His research interests are in the outcomes of individuals with traumatic brain injury, outcomes after burn injuries, quality improvement, and patient safety.
He earned his B.S. degree, M.P.T. degree, medical degree, and completed his residency in PM&R at the University of Washington.
Jeanne Hoffman, Ph.D., Co-Project Investigator
Dr. Hoffman is a Clinical Psychologist, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. She specializes in the rehabilitation of persons with TBI and spinal cord injury and is an attending psychologist on the inpatient rehabilitation unit at University of Washington Medical Center. Her research in TBI has focused on the impact of the new Medicare prospective payment system on access to inpatient rehabilitation. In addition, she supervises the behavioral examiners on the study.
Janet Powell, Ph.D., Co-Project Investigator and Data Quality Director
Janet Powell is an Associate Professor in the Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. Dr. Powell has over 20 years of clinical experience as an occupational therapist specializing in the assessment and treatment of individuals with brain injury. She serves as Data Quality Director for the UW TBI Model System overseeing the national and local data collection.
Dr. Powell's research interests include the management of vision dysfunction following acquired brain injury. Her other research interests include recovery following brain injury including the perspective of TBI survivors on their recovery and methodological issues in studies of rehabilitation effectiveness.
Nancy R. Temkin, Ph.D., Co-Project Investigator
Nancy Temkin is a Professor of Neurological Surgery and Biostatistics, and Adjunct Professorin the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. As the Biostatistician on the Model System, she is an investigator on all research projects, oversees database management for the UW TBI Model System and for all research projects, and is a member of the Management team.
Dr. Temikn has served on the NINDS Program Project and Clinical Trials Study Section, and on the FDA's Peripheral and Central Nervous System Advisory Committee. She is a member of the editorial board for Epilepsia, the Epilepsy Foundation of America's Professional Advisory Board and Cost of Epilepsy Oversight Committee, and the American Epilepsy Society Task Force on Epileptogenesis. She has monitored data and safety for NIH- and industry-sponsored clinical trials.
Dr. Temkin is a reviewer for numerous journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the New England Journal of Medicine. She has led the statistical efforts for eight major multidisciplinary research programs.
Robert T. Fraser, Ph.D., CRC, Co-Project Investigator 
Bob Fraser is a Professor in the Department of Neurology, with joint appointments in Neurological Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine. He is a licensed counseling and rehabilitation psychologist and a certified rehabilitation counselor. Dr. Fraser is an investigator on projects that address job stability after TBI and is actively involved in improving public education about TBI.
Dr. Fraser has published more than eighty articles and book chapters in rehabilitation psychology and vocational rehabilitation. He is co-editor of Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Practical Psychosocial Assessment and Intervention (CRC Press, 2000). He is a member of the Review Committee for the annual Brain Injury Association conference. He is a current member of the Epilepsy Foundation of Washington and a PAB member of the National Epilepsy Foundation, as well as former planning committee member for the BIA National and a past board member of the Epilepsy Foundation of America. Dr. Fraser is a former president of Division 22 Rehabilitation Psychology of the American Psychological Association.
He has consulted on TBI Rehabilitation with numerous private companies, the Veterans Administration and completed an assessment of TBI day treatment programs in Israel for the World Rehabilitation Fund.
Jo Ann Brockway, Ph.D., Co-Project Investigator
Jo Ann Brockway, Ph.D., is a Clinical Associate Professor in Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington. She is an Attending Psychologist in the Comprehensive Outpatient Rehabilitation Program at Harborview Medical Center, where she works with individuals with a variety of disabilities, including brain injury, and their families.
Dr. Brockway first became interested in rehabilitation in graduate school while doing a practicum in a rehabilitation facility. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Iowa, and looked for an internship that would give her more training in Rehabilitation. She was fortunate to complete an internship in Health Care Psychology at the University of Minnesota, where she spent several months working on the inpatient rehabilitation unit. This experience led to a career in rehabilitation spanning a variety of settings, including inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, an HMO and independent practice.
Dr. Brockway’s research interests include studying the effectiveness of interventions for individuals with TBI and their families, and finding good outcome measures for research with people with disabilities. Dr. Brockway has also published in the areas of pain, sexuality and disability, and behavioral treatment of anger.
Jason Barber, M.S., Systems Analyst
Jason is pretty much the 'go-to' guy when it comes to anything involving databases, statistics, and graphical presentations. He consults on most of the current ongoing studies of TBI, including TBI Model Systems, Magnesium-Sulfate, Exercise and Depression, Scheduled Telephone Intervention, Sertraline and TBI, and Recovery from Concussion.
Jason received his M.S. in Biostatistics from the University of Washington, and has been working in TBI research since 1997. During that time he has worked the data side on dozens of projects pertaining to TBI, epilepsy, tumors, and other brain-related phenomena. For his Masters thesis Jason examined the ramifications of missing outcomes in studies of TBI and statistical methods devised to adjust for them.
Aaron Scrol, M.A., Research Manager
Aaron is primarily responsible for coordinating the daily activities of the TBI Model Systems Study. He assists in subject enrollment, tracking, retention, and follow-up. He is also closely involved in project design, operation, compliance, dissemination and administration. To contact Aaron please email him at ascrol@u.washington.edu
Aaron has a M.A. in Applied Anthropology from Northern Arizona University and ten years of experience in both environmental and public health research and community organizing and advocacy. He has worked on several projects examining the risk behaviors of gay, ethnic minority, and drug using populations as they relate to the spread of infectious disease such as HIV and Hepatitis C. He has also been involved in clinical trials for medications targeting various substance abuse disorders. In addition, he has worked with a number of Native American communities and tribal governments to examine the implications of socio-cultural factors on the development and implementation of environmental and public health protection measures.
Leslie Kempthorne, B.S., B.A., Research Coordinator
Leslie Kempthorne has a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in Psychology. She has worked with the TBI Model System since 2000, and spent the first two of those years doing enrollment and consenting at Harborview Medical Center. She currently handles the telephone follow-up calls for the study.
Previous to working with the TBI Model System Study, Leslie worked in a microbiology lab at the University of Washington doing research on white blood cells. She also has many years experience as a coordinator for a homeless youth shelter, as well as working with people with AIDS, and the needle exchange program.
Her interests include traveling to foreign lands, politics and her son Max, now 7 years old. She is planning to attend the MSW program at the University of Washington in the Fall of 2010.Heather Porter MSW, Research Care Manager
Heather is a Research Care Manager (RCM) for the TBI Model System Telephone Study. The RCM provides supportive counseling, educational information about TBI, problem-solving assistance and referrals to community resources. The goal is to help individuals increase their success at dealing with multiple, complex challenges experienced after a TBI.
Heather graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in psychology and spent the summers of those college years fighting wildland fires in Central Washington. Since then she has worked with children in therapeutic foster care and interned as a child and family therapist.
Heather graduated from the MSW Program in the University of Washington School of Social Work. Heather is a soccer fanatic, playing both indoor and outdoor soccer for four co-ed teams.
Judy Jeong, Caregiver Consultant
Judy Jeong is the TBIMS Caregiver Consultant for the new study "Scheduled Telephone Intervention for Caregivers of Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial."
Judy is currently enrolled in the Master's of Social Work program at the University of Washington. In addition to her studies, she is assisting in the care for an older sister with a severe disability resulting from a traumatic brain injury sustained in 2002. She has participated extensively in her sister's rehabilitation care both as an interpreter and as a primary care giver. She has volunteered with the Brain Injury Association of Washington, and is a member of the Rehab Family Advisory Council at the University of Washington Medical Center.
Her experience with the TBI Model System of Care at the University of Washington as a client, consumer and patient advocate make her well qualified to consult on proposed research involving care givers in the TBIMS. In addition, Ms. Jeong is a native of South Korea, having immigrated to the Seattle area in 2002. She is uniquely situated to provide much needed insight into the medical and educational needs of the diverse and numerous immigrant populations in the UWTBIMS system of care.
Silas James, Research Assistant
Silas recently joined the TBI Model System Study as a part time research assistant. Participants in the study may get a phone call from him, because he is helping to maintain contact with people, locate patients that we have lost connection with, and do telephone interviews. He graduated from The Evergreen State College with a B.A. in Liberal Arts in early 2008. While there, he focused his studies on Humanities and Writing. During his last year at Evergreen Silas was an intern in Governor Gregoire's communications office, and avidly follows politics.
Before going to Evergreen Silas earned a degree in Opticianry from Seattle Central Community College; for five years he sold eyeglasses and worked as a contact lens technician. Silas has volunteered extensively at Children's Hospital. Among other things he has volunteered as a swim lesson instructor and an arts and crafts counselor at the Stanley Stamm Children's Hospital Summer Camp. Silas also has a TBI.
Julia Fryer , Research Assistant
Julia Fryer, BS. Julia is a Research Assistant for the TBI Model System. Participants in Model System studies will likely meet her at Harborview Medical Center where she works on patient enrollment and testing.