Administration

Executive Director

Catherine Leigh Graham, MEBME, started as the Executive Director of the SCIRF in January 2014. She served as a SCIRF board member from 2007-2013 prior to becoming the SCIRF Executive Director. Ms. Graham is a rehabilitation engineer who previously worked as a researcher with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine's Interagency Office of Disability and Health. Through funding from the CDC, she focused on improving access to health and wellness throughout South Carolina. Her work with the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs included assistive technology, seating and positioning as well as environmental and structural modifications for people with various disabilities. Ms. Graham is a past President of the SC Spinal Cord Injury Association. 
grahacat@musc.edu
843-614-1756

Scientific Director

James S. Krause, Ph.D., holds the rank of Distinguished University Professor and serves as the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Health Professions at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He serves as Director of the Center for Rehabilitation Research in Neurologic Conditions and Scientific Director of the South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund which provides funding for basic, applied, and interdisciplinary studies of spinal cord injury (SCI). Dr. Krause also serves as principal investigator on federally funded studies, including the 50-year SCI longitudinal aging study, a study of opioid misuse and SCI, and a longitudinal study of quality employment outcomes for people with SCI, multiple sclerosis, and stroke. He has collaborated on the Georgia SCI model systems since 1993. He currently serves as PI of the Outcomes after SCI South Carolina database. Dr. Krause has served as first author on over 125 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has made or contributed to over 300 presentations at national and international professional conferences. He has published extensively on SCI including the areas of employment, racial ethnic disparities in outcomes, health and secondary conditions, and risk for early mortality. He has received several awards for scholarship and career contributions including induction into the SCI Hall of Fame (2008), the National Medtronic Courage Award in 2011, and the South Carolina Governor’s Award for Excellence in Science in 2023.
krause@musc.edu
843-792-1337

Associate Scientific Director

Dr. Naren Banik, Ph.D., received his Ph.D. from the University of London, UK, in 1970. While working at The Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, his research was related to brain development, myelination, and the demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Subsequently, he joined Stanford University in 1974 and continued his MS research in the Department of Neurology at the VA Hospital, Palo Alto, California. Dr. Banik joined the Department of Neurology at MUSC in 1976 and, in addition to research on MS, he began investigating the molecular mechanisms of tissue destruction in spinal cord injury (SCI). He identified the role of increased intracellular calcium and proteases in tissue destruction and cellular damage after SCI. This prompted him to examine agents that can protect and preserve cells and the axon-myelin unit for functional recovery following injury. Administration of some of these agents, for example, estrogen, melatonin, and calpain inhibitors, after SCI has been found to have beneficial effects in animal models. To this end, estrogen received IND approval for a safety trial in the clinic at MUSC, and no adverse effects have been noted following the treatment of a few individuals with SCI. His laboratory is currently treating SCI rats with estrogen-embedded nanoparticles embedded in a gel patch placed directly on the injury site. Dr. Banik’s SCI research has been published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international meetings.

Dr. Banik’s SCI research has been supported by NIH for over three decades as well as by funding from SCIRF, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Veterans Administration Medical Research. He has made seminal discoveries in SCI research since the move to Charleston. He is currently a Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery Department at MUSC. He also has an appointment as a Health Science Research Investigator at Veterans Administration Medical Center, Ralph H. Johnson VAMC, Charleston. He has served as the Associate Scientific Director of the South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund since 2007. Amongst his awards, he received a Research Career Scientist award from the Veterans Administration, and MUSC has recognized him as a Distinguished University Professor. His current research interests include SCI, MS, Parkinson's disease, brain tumors, and other related neurodegenerative diseases. Over the years, he has mentored numerous Masters, PhD, and MD-PhD students.
baniknl@musc.edu
843-792-7594