Yelena G. Bodien, PhD

Yelena G. Bodien, PhD is an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in the Department of Surgery, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Department of Neurological Surgery. After obtaining her PhD in neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship and was subsequently faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. She joined the VUMC Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship Center in 2024 and co-directs the Imaging Core. Dr. Bodien studies recovery after severe brain injury, applying standardized neurobehavioral assessment and advanced neuroimaging techniques to improve diagnostic and prognostic precision. Through work funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, she recently developed a behavioral tool for assessing consciousness in the intensive care unit. She also collaborated with the James S. McDonnell Coma and Consciousness Consortium to demonstrate the prevenance of cognitive motor dissociation in individuals with disorders of consciousness. Dr. Bodien holds leadership positions in the Neurocritical Care Society Curing Coma Campaign and the American Congress for Rehabilitation Medicine.