Kathryn Holloway

athryn L. Holloway is a neurosurgery pioneer. She developed a new approach to deep brain stimulation (DBS), which treats Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. A professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Holloway is also the chief of neurosurgery at the Hunter Holmes McGuire V.A. Medical Center in Richmond.

As an academic neurosurgeon, Holloway is involved in teaching and research and has a busy clinical practice in functional neurosurgery, which focuses on the treatment of conditions where central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) function is abnormal.

In 2005, she broke new ground in medicine by developing a technique for performing frameless DBS. Now used around the country, this revolutionary innovation allows patients to be more comfortable during very serious neurosurgery procedures. At VCU, Holloway developed the epilepsy surgery program and established the movement disorder surgery program, which is now one of only six specialized Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Care Centers in the nation.

Holloway is poised to continue as a trailblazer. Her clinical goal is to expand the applications of neuromodulation, which is the electrical stimulation of a peripheral nerve, the spinal cord, or the brain for relief of pain, to other diseases such as depression, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, and paralysis.

Nationally recognized for her contributions to the field, Holloway was elected to the executive council of the American Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgeons and to the Society of Neurological Surgeons. She was a guest examiner for the Oral Board Exam of the American Board of Neurological Surgery and served on the Veteran Affairs Blue Ribbon Panel for Development of Surgical Trials. Holloway has also published in the fields of epilepsy surgery, movement disorder surgery, adult neural stem cell culture, and general neurosurgery.

A 1980 graduate of Rutgers–Camden College of Arts and Sciences, Holloway was active in student life on campus. A member of student government and founder of the volleyball club, she received the Outstanding Senior Award from the Rutgers University Camden Alumni Association. Holloway received an M.D. from Rutgers Medical School in 1984 and completed her neurosurgery residency at the VCU School of Medicine in 1990. She completed a fellowship in neural grafting at the National Institutes of Health. For her first 12 years on staff at the VCU School of Medicine, she was the director for neurosurgery resident education.