Dana McTigue was hired as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience in 2003, where she is now a Professor and Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In 2021, she was named Associate Dean for Foundational Research (ADR) in the College of Medicine. Dana runs a laboratory that uses clinically relevant rodent models of spinal cord injury. She has spent most of her career studying endogenous cellular repair responses in the injured spinal cord, including evaluating endogenous progenitor cell responses and their contribution to gliogenesis and remyelination after spinal cord injury. More recently, her work has shifted to focus on the systemic pathology that develops after spinal cord injury, including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and dyslipidemia. Some of her recent data show that liver pathology after SCI surprisingly restricts overall recovery. Thus, much of her current work centers on understanding mechanisms driving liver pathology and determining how they limit recovery from spinal cord injury. In her ADR role, Dana oversees research space in the College of Medicine, facilitates training grant submissions, coordinates DEI efforts across basic science departments, and works to help faculty overcome roadblocks interfering with their research progress. She also brings preclinical and clinical researchers together monthly and helps to identify areas in which they can collaborate and/or synergize.