Terry Named NFL’s Senior Director of Research

Douglas Terry, PhD, a neuropsychologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will work with the National Football League (NFL) as the Senior Director of Research.

The role will concentrate on several initiatives meant to enhance the health and safety of NFL players and is an extension of Terry’s expertise and work on sport-related concussion and cumulative head impacts. Terry is co-director of the Vanderbilt Sports Concussion Center and assistant professor and clinical neuropsychologist in the Department of Neurological Surgery at VUMC. In this new role, Terry will help to identify important areas of research at the NFL, assist with the scientific and regulatory process of these studies, and work to disseminate the findings to a variety of audiences – from health care professionals to players/coaches to sports fans.  

“Over the past several years, the NFL has undertaken several research initiatives to make the sport safer, some of which involve helmet testing for concussions, examining turf type and injury rates, tracking head impacts with instrumented mouthguards, and identifying specific plays associated with high injury risk and modifying rules to keep athletes from getting hurt. I’m honored and excited to help identify new ways that research initiatives can help make the game both safe and enjoyable,” said Terry.

Terry brings extensive experience to this position. His career has focused on the assessment of neurocognitive and emotional difficulties – and the management of concussions and traumatic brain injuries – for over a decade. A recent study that Terry published used data from 4,189 former NFL athletes and showed no evidence that playing organized football younger than age 12 led to more cognitive, mood, sleep, cardiovascular or other health issues later in life. These results, which are published in Sports Medicine, contrast with previous small studies from a decade ago.

NFL’s Chief Medical Officer, Allen Sills, MD, professor of Neurological Surgery in VUMC’s Department of Neurological Surgery, said “The NFL is excited to welcome Dr. Terry to help oversee the expansive ongoing research efforts undertaken by the league. An accomplished and nationally respected researcher and clinician, Dr. Terry will be a valuable voice in furthering our efforts to make the NFL, and ultimately all sports across all levels, safer for players.”

Terry’s contributions to neuropsychology were recently acknowledged by the National Academy of Neuropsychology, which awarded him the Early Career Award – an honor bestowed on people who have made significant scholarly advancements in neuropsychology within the first decade of receiving a doctoral degree.

He received a BS from Tufts University and earned an MS and PhD in clinical psychology with a neuropsychology specialization at the University of Georgia. Terry completed an internship in adult neuropsychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He then completed a two-year clinical research fellowship in neuropsychology with a specialization in concussion, mild traumatic brain injury and sports neuropsychology in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School. He was an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School before moving to VUMC in 2021.