Lab Members

Dr. Ngwenya 

Dr. Ngwenya is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology & Rehabilitation Medicine at University of Cincinnati. She is also the Director of the Neurotrauma Center at the University of Cincinnati Gardner Neuroscience Institute, and the Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Neurosurgery.

Dr. Ngwenya earned her joint MD, PhD degree from Boston University School of Medicine. Her graduate thesis defined the generation and maturation process of adult born neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of young and aging rhesus monkeys. She then underwent training in Neurological Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Her research efforts during residency demonstrated that the process of new neuron generation is abnormal after a rodent model of traumatic brain injury. After completion of residency, she worked as a Clinical Instructor at the University of California San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital while obtaining fellowship training in Neurotrauma and Neurocritical Care.

Dr. Ngwenya joined University of Cincinnati in 2016 as an academic neurosurgeon who specializes in neurotrauma, and also treats patients with general neurosurgery conditions. She is actively engaged in clinical trials and translational research. Her neurotrauma laboratory focuses on mechanisms underlying poor cognitive recovery, with an emphasis on spreading depolarizations, adult neurogenesis, and an ultimate goal of improving outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injury. She is currently Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on multiple active clinical trials and is engaged in national and international TBI efforts, including being on the Executive Committee of the AANS/CNS Section on Neurotrauma and the National Neurotrauma Society. She is co-founder and a member of the executive leadership of UC’s Collaborative for Research on Acute Neurological Injuries (CRANI). Dr. Ngwenya’s laboratory research has been supported by UCGNI Neurobiology Research Center Pilot Grant, a Local Initiative for Excellence Foundation (LIFE) Grant, a NINDS/NIH K08 Grant and is currently funded by a NINDS/NIH R01 and DOD-ERP grants

Tracy Hopkins

Tracy has over 30 years of research experience, much of which has been at UC. She has been the Ngwenya Lab manager since 2019 and specializes in histology, microscopy, and being the lab “mom.”

Faith Best

Faith is a PhD candidate in the UC Neuroscience Graduate Program. She is studying the cognitive impact of spreading depolarizations after traumatic brain injury in a rodent model and is an active student member of the National Neurotrauma Society.

• Anthony DeSana
  
• C'Asia Bishop
• Henry Beckett
• Raghad Kodvawala
• Allie Heineman