Professor and Chair
Department of Neurological Surgery
Medical College of Wisconsin
Indiana University Health
Shelly D. Timmons, MD, PhD, FACS, FAANS is the Sanford J. Larson, MD, PhD Professor of Neurosurgery and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI. She is certified in Neurosurgery by the ABNS and in Neurocritical Care by SNS-CAST. She practices in several areas of neurosurgery in addition to neurotrauma and neurocritical care, including peripheral nerve surgery. She has directed academic and clinical neurotrauma divisions and neurocritical care units for many years.
Dr. Timmons obtained B.S. and B.A. degrees from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Honors Biology and Rhetoric. She completed her M.D. at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria and residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center-Memphis where she later earned her Ph.D.
She initially practiced with Semmes-Murphey Clinic and was Assistant/Associate Professor and Chief, Neurotrauma Division for UTHSC Neurosurgery, and Chief of Neurosurgery and Assistant Clinical Dean at the Regional Medical Center Memphis/Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center. She went on to serve as Director of Neurotrauma, Residency Program Director, and Adult ICU Associate Director for Neurosciences for Geisinger Health System, and Clinical Associate Professor at Temple University. Dr. Timmons subsequently served as Professor and Vice Chair for Administration and Chief of Neurotrauma Division at Penn State University Neurosurgery. Prior to her current post, she was recruited to Indiana University as Professor and Chair of Neurological Surgery, Betsey Barton Endowed Chair in Neurological Surgery, and Co-Director of the Neuroscience Institute.
Dr. Timmons has held a variety of professional organizational leadership positions, including President of the AANS and Regent of the ACS. She has been Chair of the Washington Committee, Chair of the Joint Section on Neurotrauma and Critical Care, Vice President of the SNS, and President of the two state neurosurgical societies.
She has chaired several neurotrauma committees for the AANS, Washington Committee, CSNS, and others, and has been AANS liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and the ACS. She served on the CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Board of Scientific Counsellors, for which she chaired the Pediatric Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Guideline Workgroup. She's served on the Boards of ThinkFirst, AONeuro, and GlobalNeuro.
She served as Assistant Dean of Graduate Medical Education for UTHSC, chaired the SNS CAST Accreditation Committee for Neurocritical Care, and served on the ABNS Neurocritical Care Certification Committee. She is a member of the Neurological Surgery Review Committee for the ACGME.
Dr. Timmons has participated as PI for numerous clinical trials related to TBI through local, industry, and NIH funding, having served as Steering Committee Chair for the NIH Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Trials network. She has published and lectured on various topics and has served on multiple grant review panels, including for NIH, DoD, NFL, Chuck Noll Foundation, and Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation. She sits on several peer-reviewed journal editorial boards.
She is married to a cardiothoracic surgeon and has two sons.
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Sunday, April 27, 2025
8:53 AM – 8:56 AM EDT
Panel Discussion on Repeat Brain Injury
Sunday, April 27, 2025
2:05 PM – 2:30 PM EDT