NTAP Leadership
The leadership of NTAP is responsible for identifying new research ideas and opportunities for collaboration, overseeing the research portfolio supported by NTAP to ensure it is serving NTAP’s mission and recruiting scientists and thinkers from academia, industry, foundation and government research establishments.Director
Jaishri Blakeley is a Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Director of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Neurofibromatosis Center. She is an expert in clinical trial design and the development of translational studies to advance new therapies in rare neuro-oncologic diseases.

Bruce Korf is the Wayne H. and Sara Crews Finley Chair in Medical Genetics and Professor and Chair, Department of Genetics and Director, Heflin Center for Genomic Sciences at University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has extensive expertise in all aspects of neurofibromatosis type 1, in particular plexiform neurofibromas, and is a world thought leader in the field of neurofibromatosis.

Barbara Slusher is Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry and the Director of the Brain Science Institute (BSI) NeuroTranslational Drug Discovery Program at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She leads an integrated drug discovery program consisting of 20 veteran drug discovery scientists and is the expert for developing drug therapies for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Carlos Romo is an Assistant Professor of Neurology, Oncology and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, an attending physician in the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Neurofibromatosis Center, and the Director of Clinical Research of the Neurofibromatosis Therapeutic Acceleration Program. His research interests include early phase clinical trials for the treatment of neurofibromatosis and gliomas.

Verena Staedtke is Associate Professor of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Director of Pediatric NF at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Neurofibromatosis Center. She is an expert in the clinical care of children and young adults with neurofibromatosis and other related neuro-oncological conditions. Her research is focused on developing novel treatments for these conditions, with a particular focus on gene and cell-based therapies.

Jacquelyn Eubanks-Rudd is a certified public accountant with a certified global management accountant designation and a master’s degree in information systems. She has been a financial manager for over 30 years and for 15 of those years served as director of finance and administration at two institutions of higher learning. Her area of expertise is with institutions of higher learning and medical foundations. She has been the finance manager at the Neurofibromatosis Acceleration Program (NTAP) at Johns Hopkins since January 2018

Rhonda Jackson is Administrative Program Coordinator for the Neurofibromatosis Therapeutic Acceleration Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology. She has over 20+ years of experience in administration and editorial management between Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and School of Medicine and University of Maryland School of Medicine. She received her Associates in Healthcare Administration and Bachelor’s in Business Management. Her interests include research administration and editorial management.
External Advisory Committee

Bruce Korf is the Wayne H. and Sara Crews Finley Chair in Medical Genetics and Professor and Chair, Department of Genetics and Director, Heflin Center for Genomic Sciences at University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has extensive expertise in all aspects of neurofibromatosis type 1, in particular plexiform neurofibromas, and is a world thought leader in the field of neurofibromatosis.








