Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, is one of six new members elected to the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council (NANDS), the major advisory panel of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
Shaywitz co-directs the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention. Her research interests include both the development of skilled reading and the study of disorders of reading and math in children, adolescents and young adults. She uses functional imaging to understand brain mechanisms involved in reading and in dyslexia and to examine hormonal influences on cognition. She is also principal investigator of the Connecticut Longitudinal Study, an epidemiologic study of the development and outcome of 445 schoolchildren who have been monitored from kindergarten through young adulthood. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
“I am truly honored to be a part of this council, which is vitally important to research that has potential to change countless lives,” said Shaywitz.
The NINDS, one of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, is the nation’s primary supporter of research on the brain and nervous system. The NANDS Council meets three times each year to review applications from scientists seeking financial support for biomedical research and research training on disorders of the brain and nervous system. Members also advise the Institute on research program planning and priorities. The 18-member Council is composed of physicians, scientists and representatives of the public.
The mission of the NINDS is to reduce the burden of neurological disease-a burden borne by every age group, by every segment of society, and by people all over the world. More information about the NINDS and its Advisory Council is available at www.ninds.nih.gov.
