Danielle Kerkovich, Ph.D.

Danielle Kerkovich, Ph.D., has extensive experience working with federally funded research through the Department of Veterans Affairs as the acting assistant director for rehabilitation research and spinal cord injury/central nervous system disorders portfolio manager of the Veterans Administration 157-hospital system. At the start of current U.S. military conflicts through 2007, she identified current gaps in health care for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, designed more than 50 scientific review panels, authored congressional briefing books, and proposed unique funding mechanisms between the VA, the Department of Defense, and others. In addition, she has worked as an advisor to medical research foundations in pediatric cancer, cerebral palsy, and burn injury. Dr. Kerkovich has been a peer reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. She was recently appointed principal scientist of Beyond Batten Disease Foundation to develop investment strategies to create a pipeline of foundation-funded and collaborative research activity with the potential to move from basic science, to proof of concept, to clinical candidates for Juvenile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in biomedical sciences from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University with a focus in developmental neuroscience.