About the Authors

Katherine Kimes has an extensive background, both personally and professionally, in the area of brain injury.  She has studied acquired brain injury and has a unique understanding of the mechanisms of injury and how the brain has the capacity to heal after injury.  When she was 16, Ms Kimes was a passenger in a one car accident and sustained a severe traumatic brain injury.  After spending weeks in a coma, she regained consciousness; however, her world had drastically changed.  She was unable to walk and the left side of her body was severely impaired. Her tongue was paralyzed and she couldn’t eat or talk.  Doctors told her parents that it was highly unlikely that she would be able to graduate from high school without major assistance and higher education was out of the question.  Her personal experience of living with brain injury has evolved into a philosophy of recovery and what is possible. 

This philosophy now encompasses the education of students with brain injury and those who teach them.  Ms Kimes has worked with adults who have sustained traumatic brain injuries and has written various articles on brain injury and special education for the George Washington University’s HEATH Resource Center and Disabled Student Services.  She has guest lectured on the topic of traumatic brain injury for the University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development.  She spoke at the 2007 South Carolina Statewide Brain Injury Conference in Columbia, SC on the topic of service coordination for students with brain injury.  She has an M.A. degree in Writing (2000) and an M.A. in Transition Special Education with an emphasis in acquired brain injury (2004).  Currently, Ms Kimes is a doctoral candidate in the Leaders for Systems Change Program in Special Education at George Washington University. 

Marilyn Lash has over 35 years of experience working with persons with disabilities and their families in medical, rehabilitation, educational and vocational settings.  Currently, she is a Partner at Lash & Associates Publishing/Training, Inc. in Wake Forest, NC.  She is an author of many publications on the psychosocial impact of brain injury.  Her writing and training emphasize coping strategies for families and practical interventions by professionals and educators in hospitals, rehabilitation programs, schools, and community agencies.

Trained as a social worker at Boston University School of Social Work, she moved from clinical work to program development in the community for many years.   While at New England Medical Center in Boston, she developed national training programs at the Research and Training Center on Childhood Trauma.  She is also an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Tufts University School of Medicine. 

Active on many national committees, she formerly co-chaired the National Task Force on Children and Adolescents of the Brain Injury Association of America and is on various national task forces on brain injury and editorial boards of rehabilitation journals.

She is the Past Chair of the Brain Injury Association of North Carolina and currently Chair of the North Carolina Statewide Advisory Council on Traumatic Brain Injury.

Dr. Ronald Savage has worked with children, adolescents, and young adults with traumatic brain injuries and neurological disorders for over 35 years.  Presently, Dr. Savage is Executive Vice President for the North American Brain Injury Society (NABIS) and Vice President and partner at Lash & Associates Publishing/  Training, Inc.  Dr. Savage is also Program Consultant to The George Washington University Graduate Program in Traumatic Brain Injury and Editor of the Brain Injury Professional.

Dr. Savage is the former Executive Vice President of the Bancroft Neurosciences Institute in New Jersey; the former Senior Vice President of Behavioral Health and Rehabilitative Services at The May Institute in Massachusetts; and the former Executive Director of Clinical Services for Rehabilitation Services of New York.