BIAA Announces 2025 Berrol and Caveness Award Recipients
March 4, 2025
Fairfax, VA – The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) has announced the recipients of the annual BIAA Awards Program, which recognizes outstanding contributions to clinical service and research in brain injury. Owen Z. Perlman, M.D., is the recipient of the 2025 Sheldon Berrol, M.D., Clinical Service Award, and Risa Nakase-Richardson, Ph.D., FACRM, FNAN, is the recipient of the 2025 William Fields Caveness Award. The awards were presented during the 2025 National Brain Injury Conference and Awareness Day on March 4.
“Dr. Perlman and Dr. Nakase-Richardson have made outstanding contributions to the fields of brain injury clinical service and research, and BIAA is proud to recognize their accomplishments and contributions to the brain injury community,” said Rick Willis, President and CEO of BIAA. “Throughout their respective careers, Dr. Perlman and Dr. Nakase-Richardson have continually improved the quality of care and bettered the lives of people with brain injury.”
Owen Perlman, M.D.: 2025 Sheldon Berrol, M.D. Clinical Service Award Recipient
Dr. Perlman is a founding partner of Associates in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, PC, based in Ypsilanti, Mich. The practice focuses on neurorehabilitation, sports injury rehabilitation, and non-surgical pain treatment. He specializes in brain injury rehabilitation, spinal cord injury rehabilitation, stroke, neurological, and multiple trauma rehabilitation, and chronic pain management. Dr. Perlman previously served as the Medical Director of Rehabilitation Services for the St. Joseph Mercy Health System based in Ann Arbor and is current Medical Director of NeuroRestorative of Michigan, Resilire Neurorehabilitation Services, and Galaxy Brain Center. He is Board-certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation as well as the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology. He is a member of the BIAA Board of Directors and serves as the Chair of the Advocacy Committee, and is a former Board Member of the Brain Injury Association of Michigan.
Dr. Perlman completed his residency at the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor and received his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School. He’s been named a Best Doctor in America 12 years in a row and received the Brain Injury Association of Michigan – Clinical Professional Service Award in 2003 and Chairperson’s Award in 2009.
Risa Nakase-Richardson, Ph.D., FACRM, FNAN: 2025 William Fields Caveness Award
Dr. Risa Nakase-Richardson is the Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Principal Investigator at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, Fla. She has a dual appointment at the University of South Florida, where she is a Professor and Director of Sleep Medicine Research in the Department of Internal Medicine in the Morsani College of Medicine, Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Division.
Dr. Nakase-Richardson has published 160 peer-reviewed articles and authored or co-authored 17 other knowledge translation products, and has been continuously grant-funded for more than 25 years. She currently serves as the overall PI for the only DOD Focused Program Award using implementation science and community-based participatory research to improve the quality of healthcare for persons with TBI-related disability (https://iheal.tbindsc.org/). She currently has 169 peer-reviewed publications, including three clinical guidelines and position statements endorsed by the American Academy of Neurology and American Congress of Rehabilitation representing translation of her work. She has served as Guest Editor on four special issues on topics of sleep and TBI, disorders of consciousness, and rehabilitation outcomes of military TBI, including an upcoming issue on TBI and Implementation Science.
Dr. Nakase-Richardson earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from West Virginia University’s Department of Psychology. She completed her residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Jackson VAMC Consortium and a Neuropsychology Fellowship at the Methodist Rehabilitation Center and University of Mississippi Medical Center Neuropsychology Training Consortium.