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 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 Associate 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 is currently focused on understanding headaches after TBI. 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 in the University of Washington's Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, joint with the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Neurology and consultant with Associates in Rehabilitation and Neuropsychology. He is an active counseling and rehabilitation psychologist, a certified rehabilitation counselor and a certified life care planner who directs Neurological Vocational Services within Rehabilitation Medicine. Within neurological rehabilitation, he has specialized in epilepsy, brain injury, and multiple sclerosis.
Dr. Fraser is author or co-author of more than one hundred publications and co-editor on four texts to include Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation (CRC Press,1999), Multiple Sclerosis Workbook (New Harbinger, 2006), and Comprehensive Care in Epilepsy (John Libbey, 2001). He is lead editor on the new Brain Injury workbook (Lash and Associates, in press)He has been awarded numerous Federal grants by the Department of Education (NIDRR and RSA) - four of which have been specific to traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, and, more recently, in epilepsy self-management by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). He was awarded two World Rehabilitation Fund fellowships to review, respectively, the post-acute traumatic brain injury programs in Israel and epilepsy rehabilitation advances in Scandinavia and Holland. He has focused on vocational rehabilitation and employment research. Research emphases have included evaluation of innovative psychosocial rehabilitation strategies and prediction of vocational rehabilitation outcome across different neurological disabilities. He is the recipient of two American Rehabilitation Counseling Association Research Awards, and an Epilepsy Foundation of America Career Achievement Award. Dr. Fraser is a past-president of Rehabilitation Psychology, Div. 22 of the American Psychological Association and a Fellow in the Division, a former Board member of the Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA) and the International Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers.
Dr. Fraser has received master's degrees in rehabilitation counseling (University of Southern California) and public administration (Seattle University). His doctorate is in rehabilitation psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a dissertation focused on the use of task analysis in the national classification and utilization of state agency vocational rehabilitation personnel.
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. He is also currently the President of the Brain Injury Association of Washington.
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 the statistical methods devised to adjust for them.
Leslie Kempthorne, BS, BA, 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 8 years old. She is planning to attend the MSW program at the University of Washington in the Fall of 2011.Heather Porter, MSW, Caregiver Support Specialist
Heather provides supportive counseling, educational information about TBI, problem-solving assistance and referrals to community resources. The goal is to help survivors and caregivers of survivors 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 and a hospital social worker.
Heather graduated from the University of Washington School of Social Work's MSW Program. Heather is a soccer fanatic, playing both indoor and outdoor soccer for a number of co-ed teams.
Kimberly Gloriuex, BS, Research Coordinator
Kim Glorieux recently joined the TBI Model System as a Research Coordinator. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology and a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Washington in 2002. For seven years she worked at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center on a variety of studies as a Research Interviewer. Outside of work Kim enjoys traveling and raising her two sons.
Silas James, BA, Research Assistant
Participants in the TBI Model System Study may get a phone call from him as he helps maintain contact with people, locate patients that we have lost connection with, and complete 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.