Daniel Avesar

Abstract

Abstract will be updated soon.

Biography

My name is Daniel Avesar, PhD. I am a brain injury survivor and advocate dedicated to
raising awareness and promoting understanding of brain injury. When I was 18 years
old (10/11/1999), during the third week of my undergraduate studies, I sustained a
severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) that led to a subdural hematoma and a craniotomy of the right side of my skull. This marked the beginning of a seven-year journey to rebuild my cognition, regain my inner self, address vision challenges, and a list of other strange internal problems. These experiences led me to study neuroscience, seeking to understand the profound changes I had undergone after my TBI. I earned my PhD in neurophysiology from Dartmouth College in 2013 and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Oregon in 2017. I studied the brain at a physiological, cellular, and systems level in order to make sense of what had happened to my own mind after my TBI. Towards the end of my postdoctoral position it dawned on me that I have unique awareness and insights about the “lived experience” side of brain injury. And furthermore, that exploring and demonstrating these invisible aspects of brain injury can help others better understand and support people living with this condition. Since then I have been interviewing brain injury survivors as well as researchers and clinicians to create free online content aimed at dispelling misconceptions and increasing public understanding about the invisible problems that come with brain injury.