About the Chair

Brett Kissela, MD, MS is a graduate of the Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Michigan Neurology Residency Program. He began his career at the University of Cincinnati in 1999 as a clinical instructor of neurology during a one-year fellowship in vascular neurology. In 2000, he joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati Neuroscience Institute as assistant professor and assistant director of medical education for the Department of Neurology. 

Since then, Dr. Kissela has held the positions of residency program director, co-director of the vascular neurology fellowship, and vice chair of Graduate Medical Education and Hospital Services,.

Currently, Dr. Kissela is the Professor and Albert Barnes Voorheis Chair of the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine. He has been co-director of the Stroke Recovery Center at Drake since 2008, and a member of the UC Stroke team since 2000. He also serves as Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Chief of Research Services for UC Health.

Dr. Kissela’s research has focused on epidemiology, outcomes and recovery after stroke. Within a large epidemiology program that primarily studies racial disparities in stroke incidence and case fatality, he has a special interest in the impact of diabetes on stroke incidence and outcomes, as well as the epidemiology of stroke outcomes. 

With regard to stroke outcomes, he has focused on how medical and psychiatric comorbidities, as well as white matter disease burden, affect recovery and outcomes after stroke. Finally, he participates in a variety of stroke recovery projects, seeking to enhance recovery via innovative strategies. 

He is currently also the multiple-PI of the NIH-funded Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training, the local site for the national CTSA (Clinical and Translational Science Award) program. This program is for supporting and improving clinical and translational research for faculty and trainees across our academic health center.

During his lifetime Dr. Kissela has been honored by being inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society and Phi Beta Kappa. He has also been awarded the Cincinnati Business Courier’s "Forty Under 40" award and the Michael S. Pessin Stroke Leadership Prize from the American Academy of Neurology.  He is currently President of the local American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Board of Directors and serves of the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Neurology.