Directors
Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D.
Chief Director
Dee Wyly Distinguished Chair in Brain Health
Professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Under Dr. Chapman’s leadership, the Center has developed clinical research programs dedicated to understanding, protecting and healing the brain. The Center’s goal is to optimize brain health after brain injury or diseases, and to strengthen brain function across the life span. Dr. Chapman works extensively with researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and has established rich collaborations with major medical centers across the country. Her research, with more than 100 publications, spans the age spectrum from studies that evaluate the brain’s capacity to rewire in brain-injured children and adolescents to research focused on understanding the potential for plasticity throughout adulthood into advanced age. She has developed diagnostic measures and cognitive treatment protocols to maximize mental function in individuals with a wide array of brain concerns including, but not limited to, brain injury, stroke, chemotherapy, ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, as well as healthy brain function throughout life.
Email: schapman@utdallas.edu
Phone: 214-905-3007
Fax: 214-905-3026
John Hart, Jr., M.D.
Medical Science Director
Jane and Bud Smith Distinguished Chair
Cecil Green Distinguished Chair
Professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Joint appointment in the departments of Neurology and Psychiatry at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Dr. Hart is the President of the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology and the Behavioral Neurology Section of the American Academy of Neurology. He is one of the world’s foremost experts on how you store and access knowledge in your brain, known as semantic memory. In 1985, Dr. Hart was the lead author on the seminal paper published in the prestigious journal Nature that established that knowledge is stored in the brain by categories. This was followed by a second major finding published in Nature showing that features and categories are the storage units of knowledge in the brain. In 1998 and 2002, two more major discoveries were published as Track II articles in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) that showed the actual time it takes in the brain to recall an object memory, and Dr. Hart’s lab key discovery of the actual mechanism of how the brain combines parts of memories together to form an integrated object memory. He and his collaborators have now used this key finding to assess patients with a wide variety of disorders including normal aging, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, traumatic head injury, attention deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, Gulf War Syndrome, and schizophrenia. The findings in these studies will lead to targeted treatment interventions for semantic memory retrieval problems in these diseases. In addition, the work that he has performed in knowledge storage will be applied to children with difficulties in this area (e.g. autism, ADHD, TBI, etc.) and in developing optimal programs for use in educational systems.
Sarah Monning, M.B.A.
Community Relations Director
Sarah joined the Center for BrainHealth in July, 2006 after completing her MBA at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. Prior to graduate school, she served in various roles in the nonprofit and government sectors including the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (Dallas, Texas) and The US Department of Housing and Urban Development under Cabinet Secretary Mel Martinez (Washington, DC.) She also completed her undergraduate work at Southern Methodist University.
Sarah has always had a keen interest in the sciences. She was drawn to the Center for BrainHealth after learning about Dr. Chapman’s unique vision to unite brain research and therapy in a cutting-edge, scientific environment. In her role as Director of Development, Sarah is responsible for the Center’s fundraising activities.
Sarah also serves in the community as a member of the Junior League of Dallas, the SMU Young Alumni Board of Trustees, a member of Park Cities Presbyterian Church, and a member of Pi Beta Phi Alumni Group.
Email: sarah.monning@utdallas.edu
Phone: 214-905-3007
Fax: 214-905-3026
