Ramona Hicks, Ph.D.

Dr. Ramona R. Hicks joined the National Institute of Health (NIH) in 2005, where she currently serves as a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Dr. Hicks is responsible for providing programmatic and scientific leadership to promote progress in research on traumatic brain injury and neonatal hypoxic-ischemic injury. She also currently serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the US Critical Illness and Injury Trials Group, for the Trans-NIH Resuscitation Outcomes Committee, and for the Interagency Committee on Disability Research. Before coming to NIH, Dr. Hicks earned a B.S. degree in Biology from the University of California, a M.A. degree in Physical Therapy from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Connecticut Health Science Center. Her clinical practice as a physical therapist provided a foundation for what has become a lifelong commitment to improving functional outcomes in children and adults with neurological impairments. Her Ph.D. training focused on understanding neurological structure-function relationships following experimental traumatic brain injury. Upon completion of her doctoral training, Dr. Hicks continued to investigate mechanisms of brain injury and repair, first as an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington, Kentucky, and then as an Associate Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. She had grant support from NINDS and from the Department of Defense. In addition to research, she taught and mentored physical therapy and other graduate and undergraduate students. She also served as the Coordinator of a Research Emphasis Area in Neural Plasticity, the purpose of which was to promote interdisciplinary research in this area.