Biography
Jonathan Lifshitz, PhD, leads the Neurotrauma & Social Impact research team as a joint venture between the Phoenix VA Health Care System and University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. He is a VA Research Health Scientist and a Research Professor of Psychiatry.
Research projects focus on investigative, restorative, and regenerative treatments for traumatic brain injury as it develops into chronic neurodegenerative disease. We investigate domestic violence, child abuse, gender imbalance, marital norms, and Veteran mental health, with focus on inflammation and circuit reorganization to detect and intervene. The goal is to train generations of investigators to apply rigorous data to work for social impact, including health and medical outcomes.
Dr. Lifshitz earned a Bachelors in Neuroscience from UCLA, a PhD in Neuroscience from University of Pennsylvania, and completed fellowships at UPenn and VCU. He leads local, state, and federal funded projects, including ones on cognitive rehabilitation, cardiovascular risk factors, vital imaging, neuroinflammation, and TBI during pregnancy. Currently, he is the scientific director for regional and national consortia to understand TBI arising from domestic violence. He chairs shared governance bodies at his institutions, chaired the Arizona Governor’s Council on Spinal and Head Injury, and reviews grants for national institutes. His term as vice-chair for the North American Brain Injury Society has just started.