Dr. Cindy Ivanhoe Appointed to Texas Brain Injury Advisory Council

Cindy Ivanhoe, MD, who has a decades-long career caring for people with brain injuries, has been appointed to the prestigious Texas Brain Injury Advisory Council (TBIAC). She currently serves as the director of the Spasticity and Associated Syndromes of Movement (SPASM) program at TIRR Memorial Hermann.

“One of my goals for this appointment is to add perspective about what life is like for brain injury survivors and their families, in both the short and long term,” Dr. Ivanhoe says.

TBIAC, which is run by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), is tasked with addressing strategic planning, policy, rules and services related to preventing brain injury, as well as providing rehabilitation, long-term services and support for people who have suffered brain injuries. Key to the Council’s work is engaging with individuals and their families, as well as health care professionals, in order to provide education and promote awareness regarding brain injury and to implement prevention and care strategies throughout Texas.

The TBIAC consists of 15 members representing the 11 Health and Human Services (HHS) administrative regions in the Lone Star State. Dr. Ivanhoe will represent HHS Region 6 until December 2026.

Dr. Ivanhoe looks forward to sharing perspectives gleaned through years of practice treating those with brain injuries of all types.

“I have had extensive experience with brain injury of all types—traumatic brain injury, tumors, stroke, bleed, and other neurological issues,” she explains. “I’m caring for people who require all levels of care, from acute care, neurosurgery, trauma, outpatient therapies and assistance for those in residential facilities and their communities.”

Dr. Ivanhoe received her medical degree from the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, in Jalisco, México, had her residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and completed her brain injury fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She came to TIRR Memorial Hermann in 1993 and served as director of the Brain Injury and Stroke program when she was on Baylor faculty. In that role, she was part of the creation of the spasticity program at TIRR Memorial Hermann. She then went on to treat patients in an assortment of brain injury venues, while always maintaining a role at TIRR Memorial Hermann. She has been in her current role of director of the SPASM program since 2018.

She was awarded the 2022-2023 John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished Faculty Award from the Women Faculty Forum of McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, and was the first physiatrist from TIRR Memorial Hermann to be presented with this recognition. In 2016, she was awarded the Distinguished Clinician Award from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and is regularly included in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Doctors” list. She has just been selected as the first Luminary Award Recipient by the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) – Texas Chapter.

“Brain injury rehabilitation requires a broad perspective of the issues that people and their families are facing, as well as an understanding of the challenges health care providers are facing when providing care for these individuals,” Dr. Ivanhoe says. “Brain Injury is now recognized as a chronic disease and that comes with medical, social, financial, moral and other issues that are overlooked.”