Reimschisel steps down as director of LEND Program at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND); Lee Named Successor

October 8, 2019

(L-R) Tyler Reimschisel,M.D., MHPE and Evon Batey Lee, Ph.D.

Tyler Reimschisel, former director of Division of Developmental Medicine and the Center for Child Development, and former director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center's (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) Vanderbilt Consortium LEND program, has been appointed to founding associate provost for interprofessional education, research, and collaborative practice at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic.

Reimschisel has long been focused on health sciences education along with a broad range of leadership experiences in clinical and academic settings. After completing three residencies at Johns Hopkins University-pediatrics, child neurology, and genetic medicine-Reimschisel joined the Washington University School of Medicine as an assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology and director of its medical genetics residency program. The opportunity to assume the division director position brought him to VUMC in 2008.

He was named associate director of the Vanderbilt Consortium LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities) at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center in 2008 and became director in 2013.

"Dr. Reimschisel has been a transformational leader and has made important contributions in how we educate future leaders in the field of neurodevelopmental disabilities," said Jeffrey Neul, M.D., Ph.D., Annette Schaffer Eskind Chair and director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. "His contributions in teaching, mentoring, curriculum development, leadership education, and service to the field are exceptional. He will be missed, and we wish him well in his new endeavors."

Evon Batey Lee succeeds Reimschisel as director of the Vanderbilt Consortium LEND (VCL). Lee has served as associate director since 2013.

As a developmental psychologist, Lee has more than 38 years of experience working with children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. She joined the faculty of the Vanderbilt University Department of Pediatrics in 1981, and is currently associate professor of Pediatrics, Psychology & Psychiatry.  She was named associate director of the VCL in 2013.

Lee also serves as the Director of Training for the VKC University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), and as the Neurobehavioral Phenotypes Coordinator with the VKC's Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC). Lee also has done extensive work as a clinical psychologist with the VKC Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD).

"We welcome Dr. Lee as LEND director and know she brings with her great experience and leadership," said Neul. "She has a career-long commitment to mentoring pre-professionals in a wide array of fields. She is well-positioned to meet the VCL's goal of preparing health professionals to assume leadership roles to serve children with neurodevelopmental and related disabilities."

Courtney Taylor is director of VKC Communications.