Community health expert, integrative biologist join faculty

The Medical Center is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty:

Nicole J. Borges, Ph.D.

Dr. Nicole J. Borges, assistant dean of medical education research and evaluation, Office of Academic Affairs, and professor of community health at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, has joined the Medical Center faculty as a professor of pediatrics.

After receiving the B.A. in psychology from Boston University in 1988, Borges earned the M.A. in agency counseling 1993 and the Ph.D. in counseling psychology in 1998 at Indiana State University. She did an internship in clinical psychology from 1997-98 at Veteran's Administration Hospital, Danville, Illinois, and a fellowship in clinical health psychology from 1998-99 in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

She joined the faculty at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown, in 2001 as an assistant professor of behavioral sciences and received a joint appointment as an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Akron, Ohio, in 2003. In 2006 she joined the Boonshoft School of Medicine as an associate professor of community health and became professor of community health there in 2011. She became assistant dean of medical education and research and evaluation in 2009.

An active member of several professional organizations, Borges serves on the AAMC Careers in Medicine Advisory Board and the Association for the Behavioral Sciences and Medical Education executive board and was chair-elect of the Medical Education Scholarship, Research and Evaluation AAMC Central Group on Educational Affairs. She also is past-president of the Society of Directors of Research in Medical Education and past-chair of the Health Psychology Section, Division 17, American Psychological Association.

An editorial and grant reviewer for a number of national and international journals, Borges has authored or coauthored more than 70 articles in peer-reviewed professional publications and three book chapters. A nationally sought speaker, Borges' primary research interests include personality and medical specialty choice, physician career development and non-cognitive factors contributing to student success.

Raymond J. Grill, Ph.D.

Grill

Dr. Raymond J. Grill, associate professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences.

After receiving B.A. degrees in biology and psychology from Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in 1988, Grill earned the Ph.D. in anatomy and cellular biology at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1995. He was a postdoctoral fellow from 1995-98 and an assistant project scientist from 1998-99 in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California-San Diego, where he studied axonal regeneration in animal models of spinal cord injury.

Grill joined the University of Texas Health Science Center faculty in 1999 as an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, where he developed a research program that explored long-term inflammation and its effects on outcome following spinal trauma. He became an associate professor there in 2013. In addition to his research program, Grill has also directed a campus-wide imaging facility.

Grill has received funding from a range of federal sources, such as the Department of Defense, through private foundations, such as the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation and Mission Connect, a project of the TIRR Foundation of Texas. As a faculty member at UMMC, Grill's goal is to contribute to a research program that focuses on the development of a pipeline from basic research in neurotrauma (spinal cord injury and brain injury) through preclinical testing to clinical trials in partnership with basic and clinical groups at UMMC and the VA Hospital.