William Banks is the new Associate Chief of Staff for the Research and Development at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. Dr. Banks is a Professor in the Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Bill has served as the Associate Director of Research for the Puget Sound VA Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC) since 2010. Before then, he worked in the Geriatrics group at the St Louis VA and Saint Louis University.

Dr. Banks’ research focuses on brain-body communication as mediated by the handling of peptides, regulatory proteins, and other informational molecules by the blood-brain barrier. He has also contributed to the fields of animal assisted therapy in nursing homes, robotics in geriatric medicine, sleep physiology, traumatic brain injury, and was first author on the paper that first described primary adrenal hyperplasia.

Dr. Banks is currently editor-in-chief of Current Pharmaceutical Design and is on 13 other editorial boards. He has been on numerous graduate student thesis and dissertation committees, including for students of international universities. In his new role, he looks forward to promoting research and mentoring at VA Puget Sound and we are thrilled to have him serve in this role.