Board of Directors

The Concussion in Sport Group (CISG) Board of Directors

CISG’s Board of Directors is comprised of individuals elected by the general assembly to serve in a voluntary capacity. These individuals have expertise in the science and practice of evaluating and managing sports-related concussion and represent a broad array of medical disciplines from countries throughout the world. The function of the board is to set goals and policies based on the wishes/direction of the membership and manage the day-to-day functioning of the organization.

Voting Members of the Board of Directors

Dr. Echemendia is Co-Chair of the NHL’s Concussion Subcommittee, Chair of Major League Soccer’s concussion program and consulting neuropsychologist to the US Soccer Federation, and U.S. Soccer National Teams. He is a Fellow, Past President and founder of the Sports Neuropsychology Society, Past President and Fellow of the National Academy of Neuropsychology and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.  He received the Sports Neuropsychology Society Distinguished Career Award in 2018. He is a member of the international Collision Sports Group and an expert panel member, founding executive board member, and a co-author on the Zurich (2008 & 2012), Berlin (2016) and the Amsterdam (2022) International Concussion in Sports Group Consensus Statements. He is the lead author for the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool – 6 (SCAT6). Dr. Echemendia has published widely, has been the featured guest for many media appearances, and is a co-Principal Investigator in a $14.7 million grant to study the long term neurological, psychological and cognitive health of retired NFL players (NFL-LONG).

David R. Howell, PhD, ATC is an Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Orthopedics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and the Research Director at the Children’s Hospital Colorado Sports Medicine Center. He received his PhD in 2014 from the University of Oregon in biomechanics & neurophysiology and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in sports medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2017. He is the Director of the Colorado Concussion Research Laboratory, which is extramurally funded by NIH, DoD, and other funding agencies and seeks to improve the care for individuals who sustain a concussion by rigorously understanding concussion diagnosis, recovery monitoring, prognosis, and rehabilitation strategies. Dr. Howell has authored over 230 peer-reviewed publications in journals across the fields of sports medicine, biomechanics, neuroscience, rehabilitation, and pediatrics.

Professor Vicki Anderson BA (Hons), MA (Clin Neuropsych), PhD, FAPS, FASSA, FAAHMS, FASSBI

Professor Anderson is Director, Clinical Sciences Research, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Professor, Melbourne School of Psychological Science, University of Melbourne, NHMRC Investigator Fellow.
 
Her research and clinical interests are in disorders of childhood that impact on the brain, including both developmental and acquired disorders, particularly traumatic brain injury and concussion. Her research takes a multidimensional approach to understanding behavioural consequences of these injuries and the biological mechanisms underpinning them. 
 
Her recent work has focussed on translating her early career findings into clinical practice to optimise child outcomes from acquired brain injury. Major translational achievements include: i) publication of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children; ii) development of easily accessed,low burden, e-health approaches to parent-focused psychosocial treatments to maximise child outcomes; iii) development of a novel, comprehensive iPad delivered assessment tool for social competence (PEERs: patent pending); iv)digital health tools for monitoring child post concussion symptoms (endorsed in a partnership with the Australian Football League); and v) co-authorship of the first-ever international paediatric sports concussion guidelines of the International Consensus on Sports Concussion. 
 
She has published over 600 peer reviewed papers, 6 books, and has 50M (AUD) in competitive research funds to her credit. She is Associate Editor of the APA journal ‘Neuropsychology’ and the British Psychological Society ‘Journal of Neuropsychology’. She is theFirst Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology in Australia (2002), and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia, the Australian Psychological Society, and founding fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Scientists. She is a founding board member of the International Paediatric Brain Injury Society, a board member of the International Brain Injury Association, past president of the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment, and past president of the International Neuropsychological Society.

Steven Broglio is a Professor of Kinesiology, Neurology, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  Dr Broglio completed his training at the University of Georgia, followed by his first faculty position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He has been at the University of Michigan since 2011. Dr. Broglio is currently the Associate Dean of Graduate Affairs for the School of Kinesiology and serves as the Director of the Michigan Concussion Center and the NeuroTrauma Research Laboratory.  In those roles, he oversees clinical care, educational outreach, and multi-disciplinary research aimed at fundamental questions on concussion prevention, identification, diagnosis, management, and outcomes.  His research has been supported by numerous foundations and federal funding agencies, generating over 225 peer reviewed works. Dr Broglio is a co-PI on the CARE Consortium, the largest prospective investigation of concussion ever conducted.  He has been awarded the Early Career Investigator Award by the International Brain Injury Association, the Early Career and Distinguished Researcher awards by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, and Fellowship in the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, and the National Academy of Kinesiology.

Dr. Julianne Schmidt, PhD is a Georgia Athletic Association Endowed Professor at the University of Georgia (UGA). Dr. Schmidt co-directs the UGA Concussion Research Center that provides clinical services to UGA Athletics, the University Health Center, and the Athens area. She completed her bachelor’s in Athletic Training at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, CA. She then completed her master’s and PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Schmidt’s concussion research and clinical practice address a wide range of topics, including: prevention, education, evaluation, and management. Her primary goals with these areas of research are:

• Develop recommendations and guidelines related to driving after concussion.
• Increase the number of individuals that seek medical care following a concussion.
• Improve post-concussion evaluation and management techniques available to clinicians with minimal resources.
• Reduce concussion risk by identifying biomechanical risk factors.

Dr. Putukian is Chief Medical Officer for Major League Soccer, Team Physician for US Women’s National Soccer Teams, and Past President of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. She is Board certified in Internal Medicine with Subspecialty Certification in Sports Medicine and the Former Director of Athletic Medicine/Head Team Physician, Princeton University (2004-2021). She has served as a Team Physician for USOPC Olympics (Beijing 2022 & Paris 2024) and US Men’s National Lacrosse (2010-2018). Her committee service includes Senior advisor for the NFL Head, Neck & Spine Committee, US Soccer Medical Committee, NFL General Medical Committee, FA Research Task Force, IOC Mental Health Work Group, and USOPC Mental Health Task Force. She is also Former Chair of both the USA Lacrosse Sport Science & Safety Committee (2010-2019) and the ACSM Clinical Sports Medicine Leadership Committee. Dr. Putukian has served as an invited expert/co-author for the International CISG Conferences (2008-2022) and has been co-author of several Team Physician Consensus Statements & AMSSM Position Statements. She was Editor for Netter’s Sports Medicine textbook and her involvement in clinical research resulted in >150 peer-reviewed publications, >60 book chapters and >240 regional, national or international presentations.

Christina L. Master, MD, FAAP, CAQSM, FACSM, FAMSSM (Pediatrics and Orthopedics/Sports Medicine, CHOP) Dr. Master is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and founding co-director of the Minds Matter Concussion Program at CHOP with almost three decades of experience in clinical pediatrics. Dr. Master is board-certified in pediatrics, sports medicine, and brain injury medicine, caring for over eight hundred children with concussion annually in her outpatient clinical practice. The Minds Matter Concussion Program provides clinical care, community outreach and education, and conducts translational clinical research in youth concussion. Her particular research emphasis has been describing the identifying objective physiological biomarkers in order to target active interventions to improve outcomes for those with concussion.

Dr. Kathryn Schneider is an Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist (Physiotherapist) and an epidemiologist at the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on the prevention, detection and rehabilitation of sport-related concussion. Her work has identified a large treatment effect using multimodal physiotherapy and vestibular rehabilitation. She is a Clinical Specialist in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physiotherapists and has expertise and certification in vestibular rehabilitation. She was recognized by Avenue Magazine as “Top 40 Under 40” in 2012, was the recipient of the Vestibular Disorders Association (VEDA) Champion of Vestibular Medicine Award in 2015 and recognized by the Canadian Physiotherapy Association with a Centenary Medal of Distinction in 2021. She has been involved as an Expert Panelist at the 4 th and 5 th International Consensus Conferences on Concussion in Sport and Scientific Committee member (co-lead for 6 th Consensus) and led the methodology informing the 5 th and 6 th International Conferences on Concussion in Sport. Invited speaking highlights include the 4 th , 5 th and 6 th International Conferences on Concussion in Sport, International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical meetings and many additional
International and National sport meetings. Her clinical practice focuses on the treatment of recreational to elite/professional athletes with concussion.

Silvia Bressan, MD, PhD is the head of the pediatric emergency department and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Padova, Italy. She is one of the founders of the Concussion Clinical Service at the University Hospital of Padova. She is the chair of PERN (Pediatric Emergency Research Networks), coordinating the dialogue between member networks and collaboration between large numbers of researchers and investigative sites across the world. Her research and clinical interests focus on acute pediatric conditions, including head trauma and concussion, on which she published over 50 papers. She also coordinated and published the Italian Guidelines on pediatric head injuries and she has recently coordinated the translation in Italian of the CISG Sport Concussion Assessment Tools. 

Non-Voting Members of the Board of Directors

As a neuropsychologist, David first commenced cognitive testing of concussed athletes (elite Australian Rules Footballers) in 1986. This involved baseline testing of aspects of cognitive function and repeat testing following concussion to monitor recovery. Over the following ten years, he continued to assess concussed athletes pre and post-concussion, leading to a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne in 1996, titled: Neuropsychological Recovery after concussion in Australian Rules Footballers (which was marked by Dr Dorothy Gronwall OBE). Aspects of the research included: (i) diagnosis (i.e. the assessment of orientation shortly after head trauma); (ii) assessment of cognitive functions including aspects of memory, reaction times and speed of information processing in the assessment of recovery; and (iii) objectives measures of playing performance on return to competition compared to pre-injury. Aspects of his research have been incorporated into versions of the SCAT as “the Maddocks Questions”. David worked for many years as a neuropsychologist in acquired brain injury rehabilitation. He has continued research and presented results of follow-up assessment of a cohort of former athletes tested over 30 years ago, at the Berlin CISG conference in 2016. He was a co-author of the CISG Zurich (2012) and Berlin (2016) Consensus Statements. David is also a lawyer working primarily in medical and sports law. He is a Board Member of Cricket Australia.

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CISG Membership