During Aisen's four-year tenure as RR&D director, the program's funding grew from about $27 million to more than $40 million. This expansion of VA's rehabilitationresearch portfolio included the establishment of eight additional centers of excellence and the Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP). RR&D centers and REAPs today address an increasingly diverse range of areas, including spinal cord injury, sensory loss and biomedical engineering.

A staunch supporter of nurturing investigators' careers, Aisen increased the number of rehabilitation scientists and engineers with long-term funding and helped qualified investigators with disabilities to participate in rehabilitation research. She also increased the percentage of statistically significant, evidence-based rehabilitation research proposals. This transition is reflected in the growing emphasis by VA's Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, of which Aisen is editor in chief, on the publication of larger, more statistically meaningful studies. "My vision as director of Rehab Research and Development was to redefine rehabilitation research as a scientific discipline to include all the rigor of other medical disciplines," said Aisen. "I also broadened the scope of our research portfolio, so our resources would benefit veterans with impairments of all organ systems."

A board-certified neurologist with a focus on neurologic disorders such as multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury, Aisen is president of the American Society of Neurorehabilitation. She is also a fellow in the American Academy of Neurology, and chair of the Technology Transfer subcommittee of the Interagency Committee on Disability Research.

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