Contributing Experts

November 28, 2011

Nancy D. Chiaravalloti, Ph.D.

Nancy D. Chiaravalloti, PhD is Director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research at Kessler Foundation, Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UMDNJ - New Jersey Medical School and a licensed psychologist in the states of New Jersey and New York. Dr. Chiaravalloti conducts research in new learning and memory across various neurological populations, with specific interest in testing the efficacy of various interventions for cognitive deficits in individuals with neurological illness and injury.

She has had several grant successes in recent years including an RO1 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct a clinical trial to examine specific behavioral techniques to improve learning and memory in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as a competitive supplement to allow for pre and post neuroimaging in that clinical trial.

She is also conducting a similar clinical trial in traumatic brain injury (TBI) funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), a division of the Department of Education. Her grant history also includes projects funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMMS) and the National Stroke Association.

A second major area of research interest for Dr. Chiaravalloti is in functional neuroimaging (funded by NMSS, NIDRR and NIH) in an effort to identify the cerebral substrates underlying cognitive dysfunction following brain injury or illness and potentially to monitor effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation. Dr. Chiaravalloti is also the Project Director of the Northern New Jersey TBI Model System, which is part of a national network of 16 centers, federally funded through NIDRR, to examine rehabilitation effectiveness and improve rehabilitation care post-TBI.

In addition to her research grants, Dr. Chiaravalloti also holds a grant from NIDRR to fund a post-doctoral training program in Neurocognitive Rehabilitation. This training grant provides funding for 3 post-doctoral fellowship slots per year, allowing fellows to gain experience in research procedures as they relate to rehabilitation.

Dr. Chiaravalloti has been the recipient of several early career awards including the National Academy of Neuropsychology’s Early Career Award for Contributions to Clinical Neuropsychology (2005), the Rosenthal Early Career Award for significant contribution to research in Rehabilitation Psychology from the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 22 (2007) and the APA Division 40 Early Career Award for Contributions to Clinical Neuropsychology (2009).

She is a member of the International Neuropsychological Society, the APA, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, and the Cognitive Neuroscience Society.
 

Last Updated: May 31, 2013