NEPDC Co-Directors

Co-Director
Rick is an entrepreneur and biomedical engineer with over 25 years of experience in building companies, developing novel technologies, and motivating the process of technology commercialization in the medical device industry. His expertise includes technology and intellectual property development, evaluation and licensing, strategic financing, and business development. He is the founder and CEO of Simbex (Lebanon, NH), was founding CEO of venture-funded iWalk (now BionX), and Executive Director of the non-profit National Institute for Sports Science and Safety. In addition to being Co-Director of NEPDC, Rick is Co-Director of the NIH funded Center for Translation of Rehabilitation Engineering Advances and Technology. He is Professor (adjunct) at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. Rick previously served as a small business expert on of the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and on the Council of Councils, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and holds 15 US Patents, with 4 patents pending.

Co-Director
Dr. Ann-Christine Duhaime, MD is the Director of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Department at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a pediatric neurosurgeon who performed all types of pediatric neurosurgery with a particular emphasis on epilepsy surgery and trauma. As well as being a professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, she runs a brain trauma laboratory at MGH focused on understanding the immature brain and its response to injury and other conditions early in life, with the goal of helping infants and children. Tina is directly responsible for all clinical aspects of NEPDC, and together with Dr. Greenwald, coordinates all activities within NEPDC, including the MGH site, and helps facilitate involvement and continued productivity of collaborators in various other institutions and consortia. Specifically, she acts as a linkage and communication among pediatric-based clinicians at all sites, oversees regular web-based and phone conferences, and streamlines processes for submission of ideas via CIMIT that provides practical access for clinicians with limited time flexibility. As a practicing pediatric neurosurgeon, researcher (including bioengineering collaborations, large animal translational research, and pediatric clinical trials), and technology innovator, she serves as the main clinician link to the other members of the team.