Dr. H. Allison Bender has been promoted to Professor of Neuropsychology in Neurological Surgery and Attending Psychologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Bender, who is Director of Neuropsychology within Neurological Surgery, is board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology; she specializes in evaluating neurosurgical patients to determine if they are candidates for surgery, conducting intraoperative testing of patients during awake craniotomies, and in cognitive remediation therapies appropriate for patients with a wide variety of cognitive challenges after treatment for brain conditions. She has also spoken and written on the topic of the effects of digital technology on the brains of children and adolescents.
“Dr. Bender joined the faculty in 2020, when we were still deep in the pandemic,” says Dr. Philip Stieg, Margaret and Robert J. Hariri Professor of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and Chairman and Neurosurgeon-in-Chief of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “She has become an integral part of the operative team here, with pre- and post-operative testing as well as literally holding patient hands in the OR. She has also become a sought-after expert on the national stage. I could not be more pleased to welcome her to the rank of full professor.”
Dr. Bender has a special interest in the neuropsychological needs of non-native English speakers and patients born outside of the United States; she is active in professional groups working to reduce disparities in healthcare. To facilitate this, Dr. Bender holds leadership roles in multiple neuropsychological organizations committed to equity for all, including the New York Neuropsychology Group’s Bilingual Task Force (co-Chair). She is a Delegate to the Cultural Neuropsychology Council and is a Fellow and Practice Chair of the Hispanic Neuropsychological Society. Dr. Bender is also one of six selected delegates to the Inter-Organizational Practice Committee (IOPC), which is a coalition of all of the major national Neuropsychology organizations and licensing boards with advocacy expertise in the United States, representing over 6,500 neuropsychologists. Dr. Bender was named as the Chair of the IOPC’s 360° Task Force on test security issues, giving invited presentations discussing professional and advocacy issues the country centered on this topic.
At Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Bender is the Wellness co-Officer for the Department of Neurological Surgery, is a Cornell Research Scholar in Health Equity, is co-Director of the Neuropsychology Externship Program, and Director of the Post-Doctoral Training Program. She is also involved in multiple research efforts within the Weill Cornell Medicine community, as a Principal Investigator, co-Investigator on several federally funded grants, and in cutting-edge clinical trial work. A prolific author, she has authored more than 55 publications in peer-reviewed journals, encyclopedia entries, and book chapters. Most recently, she is the senior author on The Evolving Need for Neuropsychology in Neurosurgical Settings: Challenges Facing Transformative Care, published in World Neurosurgery, as well as the recent paper in Neurosurgical Review, The Unseen Impact — A deep dive into neurocognitive impairment among patients with intracranial meningiomas: A comprehensive systematic review of the literature.