Faculty

Dr. Catherine Ikard is a clinical assistant professor of Neurology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the College of Community Health Sciences. She is also the Neurology
Clerkship Director.

Ikard is a board-certified neurologist who received her bachelor’s degree from
Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and her medical degree from the
University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile. She
completed her residency in neurology at the University of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences in Little Rock, Ark.

Clinically, Ikard enjoys the practice of general neurology. She sees patients
with a variety of neurological disorders, including stroke, epilepsy, multiple
sclerosis, dementia, movement and neuromuscular disorders, and headache
syndromes. She has a procedures interest in occipital nerve blocks, trigger
point injections and the administration of botulinum toxin for migraine and
neuromuscular disorders.

As Clerkship Director, Ikard’s focus is the clinical education of all UAB Heersink School of Medicine students who
train at CCHS, which is also a regional campus of the Heersink School of Medicine. Her curricular developments aim to equip all
students with a core understanding of neurology, with a special eye on the
recruitment of future neurologists to close the neurology care deficit in the
state of Alabama. Ikard’s clerkship has earned her The University of Alabama
College of Community Health Sciences Faculty Recognition Award, the Patrick
McCue Award, and the UAB Argus Award for Best Clinical Educator. She has
been nominated for the American Academy of Neurology’s National Clerkship
Director’s Award, and she is the recipient of the UAB Leonard Tow Humanism
in Medicine Award, presented nationally by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

She has trained well over a dozen students who have subsequently matched
into neurology residencies since 2016. She has furthermore established the CCHS Endowed
Scholarship in Neurology, which is currently raising funds to award academic
scholarships to students who match into neurology and intend to practice in
the state of Alabama. To donate to the endowment, please
click HERE for an online form pre-populated for the Endowed
Scholarship in Neurology.

Her research interests largely focus on the impact of human behavior in the
setting of clinical medicine and medical training, with an emphasis on
empathy. This includes closer attention to functional patients in the Neurology
Clinic, the development of subspecialty recruitment tools into a field that is
complex and often overwhelming to students, and the impact of dedicated
empathy teaching on health-care disparities. She is also interested in research
that provides quality of life and normalcy for those with incurable neurologic
disease or injury.