Alison Baird, MD, BS, FRACP, PhD, MPH

Dr. Baird obtained her Medical and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Melbourne in Australia. Following training in neurology, Dr. Baird completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston in 1998 after which she joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School, subsequently obtaining a Master's in Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Baird joined the National Institutes of Health in 2000 and served as Chief of the Stroke Neuroscience Unit until 2007, moving to Downstate in 2007 as Professor of Neurology and Physiology/Pharmacology. At Downstate she served as the Director of the Stroke Program, Director of the Division of Cerebrovascular Disease and Stroke and Program Director for the ACGME-accredited Vascular Neurology Fellowship - which she established - between 2007 and 2022.

Dr. Baird currently serves as Vice-Chair for Career Development and Mentoring in the Department of Neurology, as a senior attending physician and runs an active and ongoing NIH-funded research program. Throughout her career, Dr. Baird has combined clinical and translational stroke research with clinical practice. Her research has focused on novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to stroke. She has received prestigious awards for her work and her work has had a significant impact on stroke treatment as practiced today. She has over 150 publications, many highly cited and has lectured nationally and internationally.

Education

• Undergraduate: University of Melbourne
• Advanced Degree: University of Melbourne, Royal Australasian College of Physicians
• Medical School: University of Melbourne 
• Internship: Austin Hospital
• Residency: Austin and Repatriation Medical Center
• Fellowship: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA

Research Interests

• Stroke
• Diagnosis
• Point of care technology
• Therapeutics

• Arnett DK, Baird AE, Barkley RA, Basson CT, Boerwinkle E, Ganesh SK, Herrington DM, Hong Y, Jaquish C, McDermott DA, O'Donnell CJ; American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention; American Heart Association Stroke Council; Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Interdisciplinary Working Group. Relevance of genetics and genomics for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention, the Stroke Council, and the Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Interdisciplinary Working Group. Circulation. 2007 Jun 5;115(22):2878-901. Epub 2007 May 21. PMID: 17515457
• Baird AE. Blood genomics in human stroke. Stroke. 2007 Feb;38(2 Suppl):694-8. Review.
• Baird AE. Blood biologic markers of stroke: improved management, reduced cost? Curr Atheroscler Rep.2006 Jul;8(4):267-75. Review. PMID: 16822391
• Simak J, Gelderman MP, Yu H, Wright V, Baird AE. Circulating endothelial microparticles in acute ischemic stroke: a link to severity, lesion volume and outcome. J Thromb Haemost. 2006 Jun;4(6):1296-302. PMID: 16706974
• Baird AE. The forgotten lymphocyte: immunity and stroke. Circulation. 2006 May 2;113(17):2035-6. No abstract available. PMID: 16651483
• Baird AE. The blood option: transcriptional profiling in clinical trials. Pharmacogenomics. 2006 Mar;7(2):141-4. PMID: 16515391
• Wright VL, Olan W, Dick B, Yu H, Alberts-Grill N, Latour LL, Baird AE. Assessment of CE-MRA for the rapid detection of supra-aortic vascular disease. Neurology. 2005 Jul 12;65(1):27-32. PMID: 16009882
• Moore DF, Li H, Jeffries N, Wright V, Cooper RA Jr, Elkahloun A, Gelderman MP, Zudaire E, Blevins G, Yu H, Goldin E, Baird AE. Using peripheral blood mononuclear cells to determine a gene expression profile of acute ischemic stroke: a pilot investigation. Circulation. 2005 Jan 18;111(2):212-21. Epub 2005 Jan 3. PMID: 15630028
• Nadareishvili ZG, Li H, Wright V, Maric D, Warach S, Hallenbeck JM, Dambrosia J, Barker JL, Baird AE. Elevated pro-inflammatory CD4+CD28- lymphocytes and stroke recurrence and death. Neurology. 2004 Oct 26;63(8):1446-51. PMID: 15505163