Dr Kennedy was born and raised in a small town in northwest Illinois where she attended public school and was active in foreign language and athletic clubs, choir and national honor society. She is the only child born to parents who worked in the banking industry. She received a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Western Illinois University and a Master’s degree in experimental psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington. After receiving her master’s degree, she worked as a research and psychological associate at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX. While there, she participated in co-authoring numerous publications in the area of assessment and treatment of depressive disorders.
 

Dr Kennedy received a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of North Texas in Denton, TX in 1996. While studying for her PhD she worked part-time as a human factors evaluator in the Usability Laboratory at IBM. She completed a psychology internship at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System and a post-doctoral fellowship in Neuropsychology at Brooke Army Medical Center. She also conducted post-doctoral fellowship work at the Research Imaging Center, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, coordinating a positron emission tomography study in Vietnam Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
 

Dr Kennedy has been employed with DVBIC in San Antonio since October, 1997. She is currently active in providing professional education on traumatic brain injury, conducting neuropsychological evaluations and is an investigator in several ongoing research protocols. Her professional interests include the areas of emotional and cognitive symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury and the interaction between combat-related traumatic brain injury and combat stress symptoms. In addition to her responsibilities with DVBIC, Dr Kennedy enjoys traveling, boating, swimming, reading and spending time with her husband David and their children and grandchildren.

MAJ Vikki Alvarez, MD, USAF, MC

Associate Site Director, Operations. Dr Vikki Alvarez grew up in the Philippines and in 1991 left for Long Beach California after earning a BS in Business Administration. Later on she decided to pursue her medical career and became a neurologist. She completed her Neurology training at State University of New York- Downstate (SUNY) and received fellowship training in Movement Disorders at Mayo Clinic Arizona.

Dr. Alvarez has been on active duty and a staff neurologist at Wilford Hall Medical Center (WHMC) since July 2007 where she is now serving as the Flight commander. Dr. Alvarez is also an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology, Uniformed Services University of the Health and Sciences, Bethesda, MD. She has been actively involved in local organizations such as the San Antonio Chapter American Parkinson Disease Association where she was the president.

Dr Alvarez’s professional interests include the areas of Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorders, Neurodegenerative Disorders, and Pain Management. Her clinical and research expertise resulted in 19 publications and 23 presentations. She has been invited as an expert reviewer for federally funded research protocols. She is currently a principal investigator on a research protocol looking at the efficacy of Botulinum Toxin in Traumatic Brain Injury related headaches and a collaborator in several ongoing research protocols.

In addition to her responsibilities with WHMC and DVBIC, Dr Alvarez enjoys traveling, yoga, and spending time with her family and friends.