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Theresa Pape, DrPH, CCC-SLP/L

Research Professor and Clinical Neuroscientist
Hines VA and Northwestern University
Hines, Illinois, United States

Theresa L. Bender Pape, Dr.PH, MA, CCC-SLP/L, FACRM is a clinical neuroscientist with a dual appointment at Edward Hines, Jr VA Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her translational research track in neural plasticity in neurorehabilitation of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is founded on her clinical TBI specialty as a Speech-Language Pathologist. Throughout her career, she has synthesized her clinical background with training in neurosciences, neural plasticity, central nervous system repair, psychometrics, health services methods and statistical methodology.
Her research has two primary areas of focus: neurorehabilitation measurement and neurorehabilitation effectiveness, also referred to as translational research. Her neurorehabilitation measurement research provides the capacity to accurately detect meaningful treatment effects in clinical trials at behavioral and neurophysiological levels. Her neurorehabilitation effectiveness research involves translating basic science findings to advance clinical knowledge of the TBI recovery trajectory to develop customizable precision neural interventions that effectively induce, promote, and/or shape neural plasticity of the injured brain. In 2006, she proposed the idea of and developed a protocol for using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as a TBI neurotherapeutic. Her current work builds on these foundational findings by examining the therapeutic effects of rTMS for both severe TBI and mild TBI in randomized controlled trials.
Her diverse training, content expertise in clinical trials, measurement, rTMS and cognitive clinical rehabilitation, and extensive experience in early career mentorship have contributed to her strong leadership as the head principal investigator for an interdisciplinary neuroscience team, the Neuroplasticity in Neurorehabilitation (NNR) Laboratory, for over 20 years. She looks forward to continuing to develop and advance precision treatment techniques for individuals with TBI to optimize quality of life and functional ability.

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