Sandra Hewett joined NINDS in 2024 as a Program Director in the Neural Environment (NET) Cluster. Dr. Hewett received her bachelor's degree from Providence College and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Michigan State University. After completing postdoctoral training at Washington University in St Louis in the department of Neurology, she joined UCONN Health, where she rose to the rank of Professor in the department of Neuroscience. Before joining NINDS, Dr. Hewett was the Inaugural Beverly Petterson Bishop Professor of Neuroscience, Professor of Biology and the Executive Director of Neuroscience Studies at Syracuse University. There she maintained an extramurally funded laboratory and designed and implemented new interdisciplinary neuroscience programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Hewett was an NINDS Landis Awardee in 2020, an honor recognizing her dedication to mentoring and training the next generation of neuroscientists. Her scientific training and research focused on the elucidation of cell and molecular mechanisms that underlie cell death, protection and repair in the central nervous system, with a particular focus on astrocytes and neuron-astrocyte interactions in the setting of cerebrovascular disease. At NINDS, Dr. Hewett oversees a scientific portfolio that includes research on the blood-brain barrier, basic cerebrovascular biology, global ischemia, and mechanisms of cell death.

Apart from maintaining and enhancing my scientific program related to stroke, my main administrative charge as the inaugural BPB and founding executive director of neuroscience studies is to oversee the undergraduate integrated learning major in neuroscience. I also led the charge for the development of a graduate concentration in neuroscience at Syracuse University and now direct said program.

Scientist and Educator

Neuroscientist and Educator

Neuroscientist and Educator