Clinton B. Wright, MD, is a vascular neurologist and specialist in cognitive disorders. He is Director of the Division of Clinical Research and Associate Director for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and Acting Chief of the Stroke Branch within the Division of Intramural Research. NINDS is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Division of Clinical Research provides oversight for clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of innovative treatments of neurological disorders and stroke, epidemiological studies of the natural history of neurological disorders, biomarker studies, and studies designed to elucidate the causes of neurological disorders. The Division develops new clinical science initiatives, maintains the scientific integrity of clinical trials, and provides expertise in monitoring the safety of human subjects research as well as statistics and clinical trial design, both to the Institute and to extramural investigators.
Before joining NINDS, Dr. Wright served as the Evelyn F. McKnight Chair for Learning and Memory in the Aging, and was a tenured professor of neurology, public health sciences, and neuroscience, as well as Chief of the Division of Cognitive Disorders in the Department of Neurology and the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami. He served as Scientific Director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Miami from 2008 until joining the NIH. Dr. Wright is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and of the American Heart Association. His research focuses on the effects of vascular risk factors and vascular damage, including both subclinical cerebrovascular damage and clinical stroke, on brain structure and cognitive function. Dr. Wright earned his M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York City, and completed a neurology residency and a vascular neurology fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center. During fellowship, he earned an M.S. in neuroepidemiology from the Mailman School of Public Health as part of a T-32 program.