Governor Gina Raimondo, Executive Director Paula Grammas, Thomas Ryan, and URI President David M. Dooley pose for a picture at the state house. Photo by Andrew Augustus, WPRO News.

Andrew Augustus, WPRO News

The University of Rhode Island has named Paula Grammas as the inaugural executive director of the Ryan Institute for Neuroscience.

“It’s really exciting,” said Grammas. “I am humbled and pleased to be selected for this role and I think I bring relevant experience and expertise.”

Grammas was the former executive director of the Garrison Institute on Aging at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.    She is also an international leader in the study of Alzheimer’s disease.

In addition to becoming executive director, she will also become the Thomas M. Ryan Professor of Neuroscience at URI.

“It’s really unusual to have this public/private partnership that has been crafted here among the hospital systems, URI and Brown university,” said Grammas.

“Dr. Grammas is a high accomplished scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of neuroscience. She is a respected leader, an enthusiastic educator, and the ideal person to serve as the first director of the Ryan Institute for Neuroscience,” said URI President David M. Dooley.

Grammas has been the lead investigator or co-investigator on more than $24 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer’s Association, the American Foundation for AIDS. Research, and other agencies and foundations.