David Isaacs is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center with fellowship-training in movement disorders. Clinically, he is part of the VUMC Parkinson’s Disease Center of Excellence, Huntington’s Disease Center of Excellence, and Deep Brain Stimulation Clinic. In 2019, he founded the Vanderbilt Adult Tourette Syndrome Clinic to promote specialized clinical care and advance research initiatives in this patient population. In collaboration with Dr. Heather Riordan, he established the Vanderbilt Tourette Syndrome Working Group in 2020, a cross-disciplinary, trans-institutional consortium that meets monthly to review journal articles, discuss challenging clinical case, and develop research projects centered on Tourette syndrome. In 2021, he received the Vanderbilt Faculty Research Scholar Award, a career development award that will provide protected time and pilot funding to support his Tourette syndrome research.

Dr. Isaacs is a current member of the Movement Disorders Society and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. In 2015, he received both the Medical Student Teaching Award and the James Tru Martin Award for the Vanderbilt Department of Neurology. 

Dr. Isaacs earned his B.S. in Biophysics from the University of Southern Indiana and subsequently graduated from medical school at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed his neurology residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2015, serving as Chief Resident his final year. The following year he completed his Movement Disorders Fellowship at Vanderbilt before joining the faculty in 2016. In 2019, he earned his master’s degree in public health. 

Dr. Howard is Assistant Professor of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She joined the faculty in 1991, and specializes in neuromuscular disorders. Dr. Howard is board certified in Psychiatry and Neurology, as well as Electrodiagnostic Medicine.

Dr. Howard graduated with departmental honors and cum laude recognition from Washington University in 1978, receiving an AB in Mathematics. She earned her medical degree from the University of Florida in 1982, and served her internship in Internal Medicine at Stanford University Hospital. In 1986 Howard completed a neurology residency at Stanford University Hospital and received her neuromuscular fellowship training at Palo Alto VA Hospital and Stanford University Hospital. From 1988 –1991 Howard was a Dana Foundation Fellow in Neuroscience at Stanford University. 

Dr. Timothy Hohman is a Professor of Neurology, cognitive neuroscientist, and computational geneticist. Dr. Hohman’s research leverages advanced computational approaches from genomics, proteomics, and neuroscience to identify novel markers of Alzheimer’s disease risk and resilience. He leads the Biomarker Core for the Vanderbilt Memory & Alzheimer’s Center and holds leadership positions in multiple international consortia, including serving as the Contact-PI for the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project Phenotype Harmonization Consortium (ADSP-PHC; U24-AG074855) and directing the Genomics Core for the Preclinical Alzheimer’s Consortium.

Dr. Hohman received his BA in Psychology (magna cum laude) from Gordon College, followed by his MA in Psychology from American University. He received his doctoral degree in neuroscience from American University focusing on cognitive and neural changes during normal aging. He also completed a fellowship as part of the National Institutes of Health Graduate Partnership Program in the Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging.  He completed his postdoctoral training at Vanderbilt where he was a T32 postdoctoral research fellow as part of the Neurogenomics training program in 2012, a recipient of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Foundation postdoctoral fellowship in translational medicine and therapeutics in 2013, and a K12 Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health Scholar in 2015.Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health Scholar in 2015. 

Amanda Hicklin is an Advanced Practice Nurse specializing in Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. As an outpatient nurse practitioner, she diagnoses and treats patients with a variety of sleep disorders and complex neuromuscular disorders. She is a member of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Prior to her current role at Vanderbilt, Amanda worked as a nurse practitioner in a variety of clinical settings. She also gained experience as an ECMO specialist at VUMC.

Amanda received an associate degree in respiratory sciences from Itawamba Community College. After working as a registered respiratory therapist for several years, she later earned her Master of Science in Nursing from Vanderbilt University. 

Dr. Travis Hassell is an Assistant Professor of Neurology specializing in Movement Disorders at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His clinical practice and research focuses both on movement disorders and bioengineering, with an emphasis on developing new device technologies such as adaptive deep brain stimulation (DBS). Dr. Hassell also provides instruction in inpatient and outpatient clinical settings for medical students and residents. He is currently a member of the North American Neuromodulation Society, the Movement Disorders Society, the American Academy of Neurology, and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). 

Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Hassell completed a Movement Disorders Fellowship at VUMC. He earned his MD from the Indiana University School of Medicine in 2012, and subsequently completed his medical internship at St. Elizabeth Medical Center (Youngstown, OH) and Neurology residency at Indiana University (Indianapolis, IN), serving as Chief Resident his final year. Dr. Hassell earned his doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN), graduating summa cum laude with a thesis studying devices for real-time monitoring of central nervous system recovery. He received his BS in Biological Engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Missouri – Columbia. 

Dr. Ye Han is a Research Associate Professor of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, specializing in molecular/cellular mechanism studies of neurological disorders. Her research focuses on studying the structure and function of HCN channels and its auxiliary subunit, TRIP8b in the dorsal hippocampus and related neural circuitry with the hope of finding new therapies to treat neurological diseases. Dr. Han completed her PhD in molecular biology in the laboratory of Drs. Kang Chong and Zhihong Xu at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Hacker is Assistant Professor of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She received the 2019 Kumar New Investigator Award from the North American Neuromodulation Society. She has received funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the Department of Defense's Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), and the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA). 

Dr. Hacker earned a B.S. in Chemistry in 2007 from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She attended Vanderbilt University where she earned a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology studying neurodegenerative pathways arising from Coenzyme Q deficiency in 2013. She received postdoctoral training in neurology clinical research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and was a visiting assistant professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in 2016. She completed the Vanderbilt School of Medicine Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) program in 2019.

Dr. Kevin Haas joined the Vanderbilt Neurology Department faculty in 2004. His clinical focus is epilepsy and he serves as Clinical Director of the Epilepsy Surgery Program and as EEG Laboratory Director.  He rotates as an attending physician on the Neuro-ICU EEG and Epilepsy Monitoring Unit services. He is board certified in Neurology, Epilepsy, and Epilepsy Monitoring.  Dr. Haas is a fellow of the American Epilepsy Society, a fellow of the American Neurological Association, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

Dr. Haas earned his BS in biomedical engineering from Duke University in 1991, graduating magna cum laude with distinction. His completed his graduate and medical school training at the University of Michigan, where he earned his PhD degree in neuroscience in 1998 and MD degree in 1999. At Emory University, he completed his internal medicine internship in 2000, neurology residency in 2003, and clinical neurophysiology fellowship with an emphasis in epilepsy in 2004. He served as chief resident in neurology for the 2002-2003 medical year.

Sarah Graves is a family nurse practitioner in the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a position she has held since 2016. In her role, she collaborates with a multidisciplinary team to manage the outpatient General Neurology patient population. She assesses, diagnoses and manages patients with a variety of neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, headache, migraine, essential tremor, multiple sclerosis, and stroke. 

Prior to her current position in the outpatient clinic, Sarah also served as a critical care nurse in the Neurology ICU at VUMC. She received her BSN at Florida Gulf Coast University, and later earned her MSN from Belmont University in 2015. 

Research Presentations

Presented at the 11th Annual Cleveland Clinic Nursing Research Conference in Aurora, OH. Balance, C., Graves, S., Harvey, M., Lucas, E., & Smith, A. (2014). Strategies for medication adherence in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a system review.