Leadership

COL Jamie B Grimes, MD, MC, USA
National Director, DVBIC

COL Grimes comes to DVBIC headquarters from San Antonio, TX where, since 2007, she had been the DVBIC Site Director at Wilford Hall Medical Center (WHMC) and Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC), now combined as the San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC).

In her new role as National Director (effective 1 July 2010), COL Grimes is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the organization’s mission: to serve active-duty military and veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) through state-of-the-art medical care and care coordination, and innovative clinical research initiatives and educational programs.

With board certification in Vascular Neurology, Neurology, and Psychiatry, COL Grimes has the background to continue DVBIC’s leadership with integrated multidisciplinary approaches to care. COL Grimes has been a staff neurologist at BAMC since 2000 and has been serving as deputy chair of Neurology at SAMMC.

In 2004 COL Grimes served a nine month tour of duty as a member of 359th Neurosurgical Team in Baghdad, Iraq during the period of highest neurotrauma patients in the past 7 years including both major battles in Fallujah. There, she quickly became “one of the busiest members of the medical team” according to COL Rocco Armonda, Director of Cerebrovascular Surgery & Interventional Neuroradiology, National Capital Neurosurgery Consortium, Director Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, MD.

COL Grimes has held multiple appointments and academic posts including neurology consultant for the Army Office of The Surgeon General (OTSG) and the Great Plains Regional Medical Command, and assistant professor of Neurology at USUHS and at the University of Texas Health Sciences-San Antonio, TX.

COL Grimes received her MD, with honors, from USUHS in 1990 at which time she was commissioned as an Army Captain. Following two years as a general medical officer in Vilseck, Germany, COL Grimes continued her training at NNMC and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) where she completed residencies in both Psychiatry and in Neurology.

COL Grimes is the fourth individual to serve as DVBIC National Director. She was preceded by Col Michael S Jaffee (2007-2010); Deborah L Warden, MD (2001-2007) and Andres M Salazar, MD (1991-2001).

A Tamara Crowder, PhD
Chief of Staff

Dr Crowder assumed her current position as Chief of Staff for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center March 2009. She is responsible for day to day management and execution of all DVBIC programs within the DVBIC network to include many US Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force installations throughout the US and at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany as well as two civilian TBI treatment facilities.

Dr Crowder has held a variety of military scientific research and administration management positions throughout her career to include: Research Associate at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, and Science Department Chair at the Massanutten Military Academy. She has also served as a subject matter expert at military scientific peer and programmatic reviews.

Prior to her current assignment, Dr Crowder served as the Contracting Officer Representative for the Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury and Deployment Related Medical Research Programs at the Medical Research and Material Command, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. A native of Virginia, Dr Crowder earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland and a Masters Degree in Microbiology and a Doctoral Degree in Neuroscience from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.