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The Commonwealth of Virginia is committed to improving the treatment and care of Virginians with traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injuries. Through the establishment of the Commonwealth Neurotrauma Initiative (CNI) Trust Fund, administered by a governor-appointed Advisory Board, funds are available to Virginia-based organizations, institutions and researchers to address the needs of people with acquired neurotrauma. The Advisory Board disburses CNI funds through a grant application process for research proposals and innovative community-based rehabilitation programs.
Commonwealth Neurotrauma Initiative (CNI) Trust Fund Advisory Board Members
Governor Timothy M. Kaine announced the appointment of two members to the Commonwealth Neurotrauma Initiative (CNI) Trust Fund Advisory Board, effective July 1, 2008. Page B. Melton, of Richmond, President of the Source Group, LLC is newly appointed to the board to fill the vacancy for “a Virginian with a traumatic brain injury or caretaker thereof.” Ms. Melton is the caregiver for her husband, former Washington Post reporter Robert H. Melton. He sustained a brain injury in September 2003.
Gregory A. Helm, M.D., Ph.D. of Charlottesville, Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia Health System was re-appointed to serve a second four-year term. Dr. Helm fills the vacancy for “a person licensed to practice medicine in Virginia experienced with brain or spinal cord injury.” Dr. Helm was instrumental in the establishment of the legislation creating the CNI Trust Fund, as he initially approached the late Senator Emily Couric with the idea as a means of funding research in neurotrauma.
The Code of Virginia specifies the number and types of members to serve on the Advisory Board. In addition to Ms. Melton and Dr. Helm, whose terms end in 2012, there are five additional members, including the Commissioner of the Department of Rehabilitative Services, the agency that manages and staffs the CNI Trust Fund and its grant program.
The remaining CNI Advisory Board meetings for 2008 are scheduled on Friday, September 26 and Friday, December 5, 2008. Both meetings are held in Richmond and will begin at 10 a.m. All meetings are open to the public. Accommodations will be provided upon request. For more information, please contact Kristie Chamberlain, via voice at: (804) 662-7154 or electronically at kristie.chamberlain@drs.virginia.gov.
Special Feature
The CNI Trust Fund Advisory Board Announces the Award of Seven Community-Based Rehabilitative Services Grantees
Previous Features:
2006 Features
2005 Features
- Needs Assessment of Virginians with SCI
- The CNI Advisory Board Welcomes Three New Members
- Commonwealth Consortium on Handheld Technology Virginia Commonwealth University.
- Collaborating to Improve Availability of Rehabilitative Equipment to Those in Need.
- Option-A Research Grantee- Cell Proliferation and Neuronal Differentiation in Juvenile & Adult Rats following TBI.
2004 Features
- Community Grants Colloquium.
- The CNI Advisory Board Welcomes Two New Board Members.
- Emily Couric Research Colloquium.
- CNI Grant Recipients Participate in General Assembly Reception on February 4, 2004.
- John D. Ward, M.D. Receives Roy M. Hoover Award.
CNI Logo for Copyrightable Material
If any copyrightable material (e.g., audiovisuals, software, publications, curricula and training materials, etc.) is developed under this grant (by the grantee or contractor) the Commonwealth Neurotrauma Initiative (CNI) Trust Fund shall have a royalty-free nonexclusive and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use and authorize others to use, the work, for purposes which further the goals of the CNI Trust Fund. Read More...
