Wake Forest Baptist Neurologist Honored as Distinguished Alumni

June 19, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Allison Brashear, M.D., professor and chair of neurology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, has been honored by Park Tudor School as a nationally-recognized medical researcher.
Brashear is a 1979 graduate of Park Tudor School, located in Indiana.

“The Park Tudor Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes alumni who have made substantial contributions to a field of endeavor, their community, and/or the school,” said Lisa Hendrickson, director of communications at Park Tudor School.
Brashear was the first to show that botulinum toxin relieved spasticity in wrists and fingers of stroke patients, publishing her findings in The New England Journal of Medicine. She has been the principal investigator in multi-center trials using botulinum toxin in the treatment of cervical dystonia, a condition in which neck muscles contract involuntarily causing abnormal movements and posture of the head and neck. Brashear is also the principal clinician studying Rapid-Onset Dystonia-Parkinsonism (RDP) and she is the principal investigator of a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study the clinical, genetic and cellular consequences of mutations in Na,K ATPase- the gene causing RDP.
Brashear came to Wake Forest Baptist in 2005 from the Indiana University School of Medicine, where she was professor of neurology and vice chairman for clinical practice and program development for the department of neurology.
Currently, Brashear is a member of the medical center Board of Directors and has participated in a multitude of community leadership programs, including the Leadership Development for Physicians in Academic Health Centers at the Harvard School of Public Health, the American Association of Medical Colleges Mid-Career Leadership Program and the American Academy of Neurology Leadership Program.
In 2006, she was a fellow in the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program. She is the past president of the Indiana Neurological Society and is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association and the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine and Movement Disorder Society.

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Media Relations Contacts: Kristin Butler, kbutler@wfubmc.edu, (336)716-3464; Rae Bush rbush@wfubmc.edu or Bonnie Davis, bdavis@wfubmc.edu.

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