Principal Investigators
Christine Mac Donald, PhD
Contact PI, Multiple Principal Investigator
Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Neurological Surgery and MPI is a neurotraumatologist who maintains a strong research portfolio of federal and industry funding focused on clinical trials and studies of traumatic brain injury and neurodegeneration. Since 2014, she has been an R25 program mentor and Executive Committee member, and in 2021 became an MPI with Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, the original Principal Investigator of the UW Neuroscience Summer Scholars Program. In 2026, she became Contact PI of the MINDS program.
Richard G. Ellenbogen, MD
Multiple Principal Investigator
Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery and MPI is a neurosurgeon who is also the Co-Director of the UW Neuroscience Institute. He has a long-standing record of NIH and other federally funded research, as well as teaching, including mentoring a wide range of students from undergraduates to post-doctoral fellows. Dr. Ellenbogen was one of the founding members of this program in 2008, and the original PI of the R25 grant and MPI with Dr. Mac Donald since 2021 stepping down in 2026 from the role of Contact PI.
Executive Committee
Dedra Buchwald, MD
Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery; she has directed or co-directed 7 training programs and mentored more than 120 medical students, fellows, and junior faculty - most from groups poorly represented in science - over the last 35 years.
Sandra Ellenbogen, RN
Critical care nurse, donor, and one of the founders of the original privately funded training program, Mrs. Ellenbogen is now one of the main Executive Committee members providing program oversight and support with the MPIs.
Suman Jayadev, MD
Professor and Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Neurology, is the counterpart to Dr. Mac Donald, the Vice Chair of Research in Neurological Surgery. Dr. Jayadev is a dementia neurologist and holds the Arthur Krause Professorship in Neurogenetics Research.
Thabele Leslie-Mazwi, MD
Professor and the Warren and Jermaine Magnuson Endowed Chair in Medicine for Neurosciences, is Dr. Ellenbogen's counterpart as Chair of Neurology. He is dually trained in neurologic critical care and interventional neurology and endovascular neurosurgery.
James Pridgeon, MHA
Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Neurological Surgery and a founder of the original program, has over 40 years of experience in research administration.
Advisory Committee
Beth Buffalo, PhD
Neuroscientist and Chair of the UW Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics who has led large NIH and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-funded projects on neural mechanisms of learning and memory. She has mentored students for more than 20 years.
Eric Chudler, PhD
Associate Professor Emeritus in the UW Department of Bioengineering and Executive Director and Education Director at the Center for Neurotechnology. He created the BrainWorks video series and is 2-time winner of the Northwest Regional Emmy Awards.
Ignacio Dávila, MBA
Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft, has 3 decades of innovation and entrepreneurship experience that he shares with colleagues who wish to start new businesses at the intersection of medicine, engineering, and technology.
Zin Khaing, PhD
Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology at the University of Louisville and former UW R25 laboratory mentor, has built a career in translational neuroscience studying the effects of spinal cord injury in preclinical models as a cellular and molecular biologist.
Administrative Team
Margaret DeZelar, MS
Senior Research Program Manager for the department's educational training grants. Her responsibilities include grant submission and progress reporting, preparation of annual reports, regulatory oversight of grant-funded activities, and management of required eRA Commons materials.
Megan Osika-Dass, Med
Manager of Program Operations, oversees the compilation, analysis, and dissemination of data for program evaluation and supervises the Program Operations Specialist.
Samantha Murray Tuesta, BS
Research Scientist, built the online MINDS application system and maintains IT and technical services for the student applications. She also constructs the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) surveys participating students fill out during and after their summer experience, tracks career outcomes, and compiles the resultant metrics and outcomes for review by the Executive and Advisory Committees.
Julie Bould
Program Operations Specialist, manages program logistics, including housing arrangements, scheduling of clinical shadowing and operating room observations, faculty lectures, laboratory assignments, and social activities. She serves as the primary point of contact for prospective applicants and assists Ms. Samantha Murray Tuesta with tracking post-program outcomes for the annual evaluation of program success.