JoAnn McConnell, Ph.D.

Dr. JoAnn McConnell is a Scientific Review Officer in the Scientific Review Branch of the NINDS, and is responsible for a variety of Special Emphasis Panel (SEPs) reviews, including ones that review K99/R00 Transition to Independence awards, F30 MD/PhD Individual fellowships, and applications for Loan Repayment Program awards. She returned to the NIH in 2002, where she had previously been Executive Secretary of the Neurology B-1 Study Section in the Division of Research Grants from 1984-1990. Dr. McConnell has been an independent consultant providing management and administrative guidance and doing contract research grant review. During this time she served as the Grants Administrator at the Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston (1990-1992) and was the Administrator for the Department of Neurosurgery at Case-Western Reserve/University Hospitals (1994-1996). Dr. McConnell received the PhD in Anatomy at the University of Arizona in 1977, continuing work on the early development of neurons which she began as a research assistant at the University of Virginia. She served on the faculty of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston for 6 and 1/2  years, and her postdoctoral and independent research there was focused on the innervation of the human urogenital system. Her teaching, research and professional experience over the past 25 years have contributed to her interest in clinically relevant neuroscience research.