Shyam Prabhakaran, MD, MS, is an associate professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences at Rush University Medical Center. He is head of the section of cerebrovascular diseases and neurocritical care.

He completed his neurology residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell and his fellowship in vascular neurology at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia, where he also received a master of science degree in epidemiology.

Since joining Rush in 2006, he has overseen tremendous clinical growth while fostering the development of neuro-endovascular and neuro-critical care services at Rush. In addition, his team achieved Joint Commission Primary Stroke Center certification for the Rush Stroke Program in 2007 and helped create certified fellowship programs in vascular neurology and neuro-critical care. He also serves on the Rush Associates Board of Trustees and is very active in the Rush Transformation plan. He has been an integral part of the Chicago Area Stroke Task Force and its efforts to improve acute stroke care in the city. He has published extensively on the topic of cerebrovascular disease and currently focuses research on acute ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attack and intracranial stenosis. See a list of his publications.

Thomas P. Bleck, MD, FCCM, is professor of neurology, neurosurgery, pulmonary and critical care medicine, and anesthesiology at Rush University Medical Center, where he is the associate chief medical officer for critical care. In addition, he is the assistant dean for admissions at Rush Medical College. He serves on the boards of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Neurocritical Care Society, is neuroscience editor of Critical Care Medicine, and serves on the editorial boards of Critical Care and Neurocritical Care. Bleck was the founding president of the Neurocritical Care Society.

His research interests include head injury, status epilepticus, infections, stroke and neuromuscular respiratory failure. He has published more than 100 papers and 135 books and book chapters, and he served more than 200 national and international visiting appointments and lectureships. Bleck is board-certified in internal medicine, with subspecialty certification in critical care medicine; neurology, with subspecialty certification in vascular neurology; and clinical neurophysiology.

Katharina M. Busl, MD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences at Rush University Medical Center. She received her medical degree with high honors from Technical University of Munich in Germany. After a medical internship at Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center/Tufts University in Boston, Busl completed a neurology residency in the Harvard Neurology Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. After completing her chief resident year, she stayed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital for a fellowship in neurological critical care and vascular neurology.

Her interests include intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage, stroke, traumatic brain injury, infections of the brain and intracranial pressure management. She is currently a master's degree candidate in clinical research at Rush University. Busl is board-certified in neurology and board-eligible in neurocritical care.

Michael Chen, MD, is a fellowship-trained neurointerventionalist with an appointment as assistant professor in neurology, neurosurgery and radiology. He received his medical degree in his home state at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

His training consists of neurology residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, cerebrovascular disease fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an interventional neuroradiology fellowship at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons.

His practice focuses on minimally invasive treatments of brain and spinal cord vascular disease. Specifically, he is involved in the study and treatment of cerebral aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations of the brain and spine, intracranial atherosclerosis, carotid artery stenosis, acute stroke thrombolysis and preoperative tumor embolization of the brain and spine. See a list of his publications.

James J. Conners, MD, MS, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences at Rush University Medical Center. He received his medical degree at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago and a Master of Science degree in neuroscience from Loyola University, where his research focused on neuronal regeneration.

He then completed a medical internship, neurology residency and vascular neurology fellowship at Northwestern University. His interests include the acute treatment of stroke, cryptogenic strokes and stroke prevention.

Rajeev Garg, MD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences at Rush University Medical Center. He received his medical degree with honors from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed his residency in neurology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. After completing his chief resident year, Garg stayed at Northwestern to complete a fellowship in neurocritical care. He is currently a master's degree candidate in clinical research at Rush University. Garg is board-certified in neurology and vascular neurology, and board eligible in neurocritical care. He has clinical and research interests in intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury, hypothermia after cardiac arrest, and use of sedatives in the ICU. He has received numerous honors, including the James Scholars Program for Independent Study and Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Medical Society.

A member of the American Academy of Neurology, the Neurocritical Care Society, and the Society of Critical Care Medicine, Garg has published numerous articles and abstracts. In September, he presented his research on cerebral infarction and intracerebral hemorrhage at the Neurocritical Care Society National Conference.

Sayona John, MD, director of neurological critical care, is a fellowship-trained neurointensivist with an appointment as assistant professor in neurology and neurosurgery. She is board-certified in neurology and neurocritical care. She completed her residency in neurology at the University of Mississippi , followed by a two-year Stroke and Critical Care Fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to moving to Rush she worked as assistant professor in the Neuro ICU of University of Texas Medical Center, Dallas.

Her practice focuses on acute brain and spinal cord vascular disease. Her specific interest is in subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracranial hemorrhage, stroke, traumatic brain injury, infections of the brain, status epilepticus and intracranial pressure management.

Vivien Lee, MD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences at Rush University Medical Center. She received her medical degree at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine.

Her training consists of a medicine internship and neurology residency at Cleveland Clinic Foundation. She completed a stroke fellowship and neurocritical care fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. See a list of her publications.

Yousef Mohammad, MD, MSC, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences at Rush University Medical Center. He received his medical and master's degrees from the American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine in 1986 and 1989.

His research interests have been in the area of cerebrovascular disease. This includes the clinical areas of acute treatment of stroke, stroke prevention, stroke epidemiology, cerebrovascular imaging, intracranial angioplasty, the mechanism of apoptosis (programmed cell death) in brain ischemia and the molecular mechanism of neuroprotection against apoptosis in brain ischemia. His specific interest is in stroke and migraine headaches. Prior to moving to Rush he worked as an assistant professor of neurology, section of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease and director of the Stroke Fellowship Program at the Ohio State University Medical Center. See a list of his publications.

Richard E. Temes, MD, assistant professor of neurology, neurosurgery and internal medicine, is board-certified in internal medicine and neurology. He received his medical degree at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and went on to complete a residency in internal medicine and neurology at the Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He received his master's degree in epidemiology from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York, and while earning this degree, he served as postdoctoral clinical fellow in stroke and critical care at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.

In 2005, he was awarded the Young Investigator Award from the Neurocritical Care Society. Well published on subarachnoid hemorrhage, he received a prestigious SPOTRIAS (Specialized Program on Translational Research in Acute Stroke) research grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Temes has research interests in subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, hypothermia, and multimodality brain monitoring. See a list of his publications.

Demetrius Lopes, MD
Lorenzo F. Muñoz, MD

Nurses and Other Professionals

• Mila Andalcio, MS (section manager)
• Elida Bader, RN (transfer coordinator)
• Olga Borisovsky, PhD, PA-C (physician assistant)
• Terry Cole, RN (research nurse)
• Nate Camden (research assistant)
• Danielle Duarte, RVT (ultrasound technologist)
• Nora Aguirre (comprehensive neurovascular clinic coordinator)
• Valerie Toll, APN (nurse practitioner)
• Yulonda Lundy, BSN, RN (nurse educator)
• Gail Valadez (administrative assistant, stroke program)
• Laura Vaught, RN (coordinator, stroke program)
• Derek Zakowski (business analyst)

The offices of the Section of Cerebrovascular Disease and Neurological Critical Care are located in Suite 1121 of the Rush Professional Office Building.