Laurie Gutmann, MD

Laurie Gutmann, MD, was named chair of the Department of Neurology at Indiana University School of Medicine in October 2020. She also serves as co-director of the Neuroscience Institute, an umbrella entity designed to facilitate collaboration among neuroscience disciplines at IU School of Medicine and IU Health.

Gutmann brings a tremendous amount of clinical, research, education and administrative experience to the role and has demonstrated strong leadership abilities as vice chair of clinical research and director of the Neurology Office of Clinical Trials for the Department of Neurology at the University of Iowa, along with serving as associate director of clinical research for the Iowa Neuroscience Institute.

Her leadership on the national level includes serving eight years as a director for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN), including three years as chair of the Neurology Council, and serving on the Neurology Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), chairing the committee for the last three years. Working with a diverse group of colleagues, Gutmann helped revise the Neurology Program requirements for the ACGME, and she has led or participated in several initiatives for the American Academy of Neurology encompassing workforce development, women’s leadership and educational programs.

Previously, Gutmann served as a program officer for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was faculty at West Virginia University and at University of Iowa. Her work helped build a multidisciplinary stroke research program at West Virginia and the multidisciplinary Myotonic Dystrophy Clinic and funded myotonic dystrophy research program at Iowa. She has been co-principal investigator on an NINDS site infrastructure grant for early clinical trials in rare neurological disorders (NeuroNEXT). She also developed the Neurology Office of Clinical Trials at Iowa which is now self-sustaining and supports over 60 clinical trials. Additionally, Gutmann and three collaborators developed an NINDS-funded Clinical Trials Methodology Course which trains up to 30 new clinical trial investigators a year.

Gutmann earned her undergraduate degree from Oberlin College and her medical degree from West Virginia University.