CPARF Establishes Scientific Advisory Board

Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation (CPARF) is thrilled to announce the launch of its Scientific Advisory Board, which includes five accomplished leaders with combined expertise spanning regenerative medicine, neonatology, pediatric neurology, neuroscience, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and more.

Members of CPARF’s Scientific Advisory Board have collectively published nearly 500 articles in prestigious journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Professor Nadia Badawi AM, PhD, FRACP, FRCPI, MSC, is an expert on newborn encephalopathy and cerebral palsy. She is the Macquarie Foundation Chair of Cerebral Palsy at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute. She is also a neonatologist, the Medical Co-Director of the Grace Centre for Newborn Care, and a member of NICUS Managers Group.

Dr. Bernadette T. Gillick, PhD, MSPT, PT, is a Neuroscientist and Pediatric Physical Therapist, and Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison within the School of Medicine and Public Health and Director of the Waisman Center Pediatric Neuromodulation Laboratory. Her research focuses on understanding recovery and development after early brain injury and the development of cerebral palsy.

Dr. Beena Kamath-Rayne, MD, MPH, FAAP, currently serves as the Vice President of Global Newborn and Child Health in the Division of Global Health and Life Support of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In her role, she is advancing AAP training programs and technical assistance in global newborn and child health.

Professor Iona Novak, PhD, MSc (Hons), BAppSc, is the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Chair of Allied Health at the University of Sydney and Co-Founder of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute. She is a Fulbright Scholar who conducts a research program of neuroprotective, neuroregenerative, and neurorehabilitative clinical trials. She focuses on discovering, testing, and translating new treatments that align with priority areas identified by people with cerebral palsy.

Dr. Yvonne Wu, MD, MPH, is a Child Neurologist and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Wu’s research focuses on prevention and treatment of newborn brain injury in full-term infants. Her goal is to reduce the rate of long-term neurodevelopmental disabilities resulting from insults to the developing brain.

Together, these experts will spearhead the organization’s grantmaking process and ensure that CPARF’s portfolio supports science for people with cerebral palsy at every age and every stage. Future funded projects will expand the cerebral palsy research landscape and focus on early detection and early intervention, chronic pain, technology, regenerative medicine, and genomics.