TIRR Memorial Hermann
Mark Sherer, Ph.D., ABPP-Cn
Dr. Sherer is director of research and director of neuropsychology at TIRR Memorial Hermann and clinical professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine in the Texas Medical Center.
Dr. Sherer is a board-certified neuropsychologist with more than 20 years experience as a clinician, administrator and educator in brain injury rehabilitation. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the National Academy of Neuropsychology and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Dr. Sherer has served as principal investigator for grants on traumatic brain injury (TBI) recovery, impaired self-awareness, telephone counseling for persons with TBI, TBI community integration and rehabilitation of brain tumor patients. He currently serves as the principal investigator for the grant, awarded to TIRR.
He has published more than 190 articles, chapters and abstracts, including 76 peer-reviewed articles, and has given numerous presentations to state, national and international conferences.
Dr. Sherer serves on editorial boards for Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, The Clinical Neuropsychologist, Rehabilitation Psychology and Applied Neuropsychology. His current areas of research include impaired self-awareness, acute confusion, therapeutic alliance and outcome prediction for persons with traumatic brain injury.
Angelle M. Sander, Ph.D.
Dr. Sander is an associate professor in the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and is director of the Brain Injury Research Center at TIRR. She is the project co-director for the NIDRR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Community Integration for Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury and co-investigator for the Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems of TIRR.
She is the principal investigator for the Model Systems collaborative project on sexuality after TBI. Dr. Sander also serves as residency research director for the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and as the neuropsychologist at Quentin Mease Community Hospital.
She has a history of federal grant funding since 1997. Her areas of specialty include family adjustment to TBI, community integration of persons with TBI, intimacy after TBI, assessing and treating substance abuse in persons with TBI, and ethnic diversity in outcomes.
She is chair of the Joint Committee on Interprofessional Relations between the American Psychological Association Division 40 and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She is currently president of the Houston Neuropsychological Society.
She has co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and abstracts, and is co-editor of the book Rehabilitation for Traumatic Brain Injury, recently published by Oxford University Press. She has been a member of the Clinical Practice Committee since its inception and is an active member of the subcommittee devoted to promoting translation of evidence-based findings into practice.
Margaret A. Struchen, Ph.D.
Dr. Struchen is an assistant professor in the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. She also serves as director of education for the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Alliance of the Baylor College of Medicine and University of Texas Health Science Center.
Dr. Struchen’s research interests focus on assessment and interventions for social communication difficulties for persons with brain injury, developing and evaluating programs to facilitate community integration and reduce social isolation, and understanding how acute injury factors impact outcomes after traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Struchen is co-principal investigator and co-project director for research quality of the Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems of TIRR. As part of this program, she serves as principal investigator of a randomized clinical trial to investigate the effectiveness of an intervention to address social communication abilities for persons with traumatic brain injury and oversees dissemination activities.
Dr. Struchen also serves as the co-director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Community Integration of Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury. As part of the RRTC, Dr. Struchen is principal investigator for a clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of a social peer mentoring program to enhance social participation, and for a study investigating the impact of social communication abilities and environmental factors on social integration and emotional functioning.
She also leads a project designed to assess training needs and develop training materials for non-specialist healthcare professionals regarding persons with TBI and leads a project to develop training materials for vocational rehabilitation counselors regarding TBI.
Dr. Struchen also serves as co-principal investigator for a NIDRR-funded field initiated grant involving a randomized clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of a group cognitive-behavioral treatment for depression for persons with traumatic brain injury.
In addition to her research activities, Dr. Struchen serves as past president and member of the board of directors of the Brain Injury Association of Texas. She also is an adjunct assistant professor in the department of Psychology at the University of Houston.
Allison N. Clark, Ph.D.
Dr. Clark is an assistant professor in the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. She completed her doctorate in clinical psychology (clinical neuropsychological specialty) at the University of Houston and a post-doctoral fellowship in rehabilitation research on the NIDRR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Community Integration of Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury.
Dr. Clark is a principal investigator of an NIDRR-funded, field-initiated grant on the Effectiveness of a Group Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Depression after Traumatic Brain Injury. Her clinical and research experience has emphasized rehabilitation and she has had experience in the inpatient, outpatient and post-acute holistic treatment program settings.
Dr. Clark has presented at numerous national and regional conferences and has a strong interest in depression, awareness and the impact of cognition on response to rehabilitation interventions.
Gerard Francisco, M.D.
Dr. Francisco, co-director of the Brain Injury and Stroke Program at TIRR, is an investigator for the Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems of TIRR grant.
Dr. Francisco is one of the nation’s leading physicians in the field of brain injury rehabilitation. A frequent lecturer nationally and internationally on a number of related subjects including spasticity management, he is currently conducting research on the use of botulinum toxin and intrathecal baclofen for the treatment of spasticity.
Dr. Francisco is clinical associate professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and adjunct associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of the Philippines and completed his internship at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. His residency in PM&R was at the University of Medicine and Dentistry-New Jersey Medical School, where he was chief resident.
He was awarded the Dean’s Teaching Award from UT Medical School in 2001 and 2004 and the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Alliance of the Baylor College of Medicine and University of Texas Health Science Center Teacher of the Year Award in 2000.
Dr. Francisco completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Brain Injury Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. Before joining the Brain Injury Program at TIRR in 1997, he served as director of the Brain Injury Program at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at New Jersey Medical School.
Dr. Francisco also serves as medical director of Project Victory, a collaboration between TIRR and the TIRR Foundation. The goal of Project Victory is to help wounded service members recover and successfully re-integrate back into the community.
Lynne Cole Davis, Ph.D.
Dr. Davis is a neuropsychologist at the Brain Injury Research Center at TIRR, where she manages several research studies and is engaged in grant-writing to develop new directions of research. She also maintains an appointment as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Davis obtained her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Houston in clinical psychology in 2004, with a specialization in neuropsychology, after completing her internship at Duke University Medical Center. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in research and clinical neuropsychology in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Davis has co-authored several publications and has presented at numerous national conferences and has a strong interest in traumatic brain injury (TBI) research. Specific areas of research interest include social functioning following TBI, awareness following TBI and TBI-related gender differences.
The Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Model Systems program at TIRR, one of the premiere traumatic brain injury facilities in the world, will study patients with traumatic brain injury and traumatic head injury. The program will also study traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, traumatic brain injury rehab and head injury. Other portions of the program will include brain injury, research, communication and brain injury, sexuality and brain injury, and acquired brain injury, as well as focus on outcomes.