Dr. Abdullah is a Research Biologist at the JAHVA and a senior scientist at the Roskamp Institute where she directs the lipidomics, proteomics and metabolomics (omic) research programs. Dr. Abdullah has been part of the JAHVA research team for nearly a decade and has been performing state-of-the-art omic research studies for identifying novel molecular mechanisms associated with lipid metabolism in order to identify novel biomarkers and develop new therapies for Gulf War Illness (GWI), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Dr. Abdullah has been funded by the Department of Defense, Veterans’ Administration and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Through her funded work, she has determined that mitochondrial bioenergetics is a novel molecular mechanism associated with TBI and GWI and is also implicated in the risk of developing AD and related dementia (ADRD) among patients with chronic mild TBI. In particular, she is developing a panel of novel biomarker panel using these lipids and metabolites to determine if this panel can help detect the early pathology of AD among patients with mild TBI.

Dr. Bickford is a Senior Research Career Scientist at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital Distinguished Professor, Dept. Neurosurgery and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida. Dr. Bickford has been funded by VA and NIH studying the role of aging on innate immunity and in the brain as an aspect of neurodegenerative diseases and brain injury. Active research for Summer TRIP rotations uses innovative approaches to examine the therapeutic role for stem cell derived exosomes in TBI during aging to improve therapeutics as brain injuries in the elderly have worse outcomes. Dr. Bickford has been awarded many honors for her excellence in research including being awarded the VA Middleton Award in 2023 and being a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Blair is a Research Biologist at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Molecular Medicine in the USF Health Byrd Institute at the University of South Florida. Her undergraduate research was focused on the role of a small heat shock protein, Hsp27, in regulating tau accumulation and synaptic plasticity in tauopathy models. She completed her doctoral and postdoctoral training under the direction of the late Dr. Chad Dickey, which focused on the molecular mechanisms of the molecular chaperone, FKBP51, in regulating tauopathic models and the role of FKBP51 in psychiatric disorders, respectively. Her contributions to the field include describing how discrete molecular chaperones regulate tau aggregation and toxicity in recombinant, cell, and mouse model systems. Her lab focuses on understanding the role of molecular chaperones in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disease, which are mental illnesses that disproportionally affect veterans. Her interests are in understanding how distinct chaperones regulate aggregation and prion-like seeding of misfolded proteins, like tau, which accumulates in Alzheimer’s disease, and in furthering the understanding of how a specific chaperone, FKBP51, interacts with stress to increase susceptibility for psychiatric disease. She hopes that an understanding of chaperone function will enable therapeutic strategies that increase quality of life, halt disease progression, and ultimately cure diseases for our soldiers.

Dr. Crawford is a Research Career Scientist at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Roskamp Institute. Dr. Crawford has been a JAHVH researcher for over a decade. Dr. Crawford’s research focuses on the application of molecular neuroscience to neuropsychiatric disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Jolie Haun is a supervisory research health scientist in Research Service at James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and an Associate Affiliate Professor in the College of Public Health at University of South Florida. Dr. Haun’s interdisciplinary approach to implementation science uses mixed qualitative and quantitative methodologies to evaluate care delivery models, interventions and programs for Veterans and their caregivers to promote empowerment and participation in Veteran-centric health care to improve health-related outcomes. Dr. Haun’s current program of research includes evaluating the implementation of Department of Veterans’ Affairs: (1) enterprise-wide virtual healthcare resources; (2) Whole Health Program; and (3) mobile and tele-pain programs. Dr. Haun also has a track record in health communication and promotion, including health literacy psychometric development and evaluation.

Dr. Kindy is a basic neuroscience and clinical researcher.  He received his PhD in Biochemistry in 1987 from Boston University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular biology and virology at the Salk Institute in 1989.  Dr. Kindy has been a faculty researcher at the University of Kentucky, Medical University of South Carolina and University of South Florida.  He is a tenured professor in the Taneja College of Pharmacy at USF and a Senior Research Career Scientist at the Haley VA.  He has had joint appointments at the Lexington VA, Charleston VA (Ralph H. Johnson) and now the Tampa VA (James A. Haley). Dr. Kindy has had funding from the NIH, NSF, DARPA, DoD, Alzheimer’s Association, American Heart Association, and the VA for more than 30 years.  Currently, he is a Senior Research Career Scientist, has funding from a Merit Review on brain injury (stroke), State of South Carolina and a clinical trial at the VA. He has additional funding at USF and several clinical trials.  He has published over 240 papers, articles and book chapters.

Dr. Mohapatra is a Research Career Scientist at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Professor, Dept. Molecular Medicine, University of South Florida. Dr. Mohapatra has been funded by VA, NIH and FLDOH to discover and deliver novel RNA/DNA therapeutics to manage traumatic brain injury and SARS-CoV2-induced neurological sequalae. The proposed Summer TRIP rotations will use Omics approaches to examine the molecular basis of therapeutic interventions. Dr. Mohapatra has been awarded many honors for her excellence in research including recognition as Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (ASEMFL).

Dr. Mouzon is a Research Biologist at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Scientist II at the Roskamp Institute. Dr. Mouzon has been funded by VA, NIH and DoD evaluating the acute and long-term consequences of TBI, including repetitive-mild TBI. His projects also investigate the effect of chronic opioid exposure after TBI, Gulf War toxic exposure after TBI, the consequence of mTBI on the visual system and various treatments (pharmacologic, stem cells and biologic) for TBI. Dr. Mouzon is currently investigating the effect of ST266, a secretome to treat TBI and Gulf War Illness Toxic Exposure.

Dr. Risa Nakase-Richardson is the Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development at the Tampa VA. She has a dual appointment at the University of South Florida where she is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine in the Morsani College of Medicine, Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Division. She also serves as the Senior Clinical Research Director for one of the ten Defense Health Agency TBI Centers of Excellence (DHA TBI COE) at the Tampa VA. Dr. Richardson has worked in neurorehabilitation in both clinical and research capacities since 1998. She is a Fellow of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and National Academy of Neuropsychology. She currently has 168 peer-reviewed publications including 3 clinical guidelines and position statements endorsed by the American Academy of Neurology and American Congress of Rehabilitation representing translation of her work. She has served as Guest Editor on four special issues on topics of sleep and TBI, disorders of consciousness, and rehabilitation outcomes of military TBI including an upcoming issue on TBI and Implementation Science. She is Associate Editor of Brain Injury Medicine, 3^rd edition and has over 321 presentations at international and national conferences. Dr. Richardson has served as PI or Investigator on 22 grants funded by various federal agencies and private organizations including VA, DOD, PCORI, NIH, NIDILRR, and NAN. She currently serves in various leadership roles including Chair of the TBI Model Systems and American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) Disorder of Consciousness Task Force and ACRM BOG Member-at-Large.

Dr. Patel is a Research Career Scientist at the James A. Haley VA Hospital, Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of South Florida, Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors, and Director of the James A. Haley VA Hospital Research Service Core Laboratories. Dr. Patel’s research interests are in the field of genomic landscape in obesity and diabetes and in regenerative medicine with focus on application of stem cells derived from adult human adipose tissue. Dr. Patel’s research integrates human studies (translational relevance to human physiology/pathophysiology), in vitro cell studies (for mechanistic studies of alternative splicing and role of noncoding RNA; elucidation of cause vs. effect), in vivo rodent studies (for determining whole body systemic impact of novel inhibitors and stabilizers) and cutting-edge transcriptomics (such as RNAseq global analysis of coding and noncoding RNA and cellular signaling).

Dr. Silva is a neuropsychologist and clinical researcher at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine at the University of South Florida. His clinical research focuses on psychological treatment of sleep disturbance in the context of traumatic brain injury rehabilitation. He developed a psychological intervention to improve sleep apnea treatment adherence for persons with traumatic brain injury.  He serves of co-PI for the James A Haley VA TBI Model Systems, a longitudinal study of rehabilitation outcomes following delivery of coordinated inpatient neurotrauma rehabilitation. Dr. Silva has been funded by Department of Veterans Affairs studying treatment adherence interventions for cognitively impaired Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury. In 2023, he was awarded the Dr. Joshua B. Cantor Scholar Award for his research on chronic rehabilitation needs following brain injury.

Dr. Scott is the Medical Director for the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at James A Haley Veterans’ Hospital (JAHVH). He holds a joint appointment with JAHVH and the University of the South Florida Morsani College of Medicine with the Department of Neurology. Dr. Scott has accumulated decades of clinical and research experience in the rehabilitation of patients with brain injury. He has been involved in rehabilitation medicine and research for over thirty-five years, beginning with sports injuries at the Mayo Clinic and currently with active duty and Veteran populations. In the VA, he has been Chief of Rehabilitation Medicine since 1996 and was the Chief of Spinal Cord Injury from 1996 to 2003. Dr. Scott had participated in research studies funded by HSR&D, Defense and Veteran Brain Injury Center, Department of Defense, and other funding sources. Dr. Scott established the first VA Blast Injury Clinic in 2003 that led to establishment of the VA Polytrauma System of Care. In 2005, he became the Clinical Director of the Polytrauma Blast/TBI QUERI. In 2006, he was the Clinical Co-Director of a HSR&D and RR&D Centers of Excellence in Rehabilitation. Since 1996, he had been the lead Principal Investigator for the Defense and Brain Injury Program. Dr. Scott dedicates his clinical and research time in improving the care of Veterans with TBI by identifying tests and procedures that promote improved clinical management during inpatient rehabilitation.