Amanda Sacks-Zimmerman, Ph.D., ABPP-CN

Assistant Professor of Neuropsychology
Weill Cornell Medicine, Department of Neurological Surgery
New York, New York

Amanda L. Sacks-Zimmerman, Ph.D., ABPP-CN, is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist who has had extensive experience in assessing and treating neurological disorders with cognitive remediation as well as researching the cognitive impact of brain injury. Dr. Sacks-Zimmerman uses cognitive behavioral therapy to treat post-concussion issues. She also treats a variety of patients who suffer from cognitive and emotional difficulties that may be the result of epilepsy; radiation or chemotherapy; cardiopulmonary bypass procedures; surgery; cerebrovascular disease; stroke; silent infarcts; brain tumor resection; movement disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease; metabolic disorders; infectious processes such as encephalitis or Lyme disease; chemical toxin exposure; traumatic brain injury; concussion; and dementia diagnoses including mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, multi-infarct dementia, and frontal temporal dementia. TRAINING Dr. Sacks-Zimmerman received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from The George Washington University and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Fairleigh Dickinson University. She completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one at University Behavioral Healthcare, UMDNJ, in Piscataway, New Jersey, focusing on geropsychology and one at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, where she was trained in

assessing, treating, and researching acquired and traumatic brain injury. Prior to joining the Weill Cornell Medicine faculty she was a staff psychologist at NYU Langone Medical Center Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine and a neuropsychologist in the Faculty Group Practice in the Department of Psychiatry at the NYU Langone Medical Center. She also had a faculty appointment to the Department of Anesthesiology at NYU, where she engaged in research regarding the cognitive effects of surgery and anesthesia in a geriatric population. RESEARCH Dr. Sacks-Zimmerman has been involved in various research projects throughout her training and professional career. Specifically, during her first postdoctoral fellowship at the University Behavioral Healthcare, UMDNJ, she derived research projects examining cognitive correlates of emotion in dementia as well as published book chapters regarding PTSD and family interventions in older adults. During her second postdoctoral fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center, she assisted in deriving manualized Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for individuals post Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) for the purpose of researching the efficacy of this treatment, participated in systematic reviews of literature on evidenced based practices of treatment post TBI, developed research projects, published findings, and presented at conferences on TBI and aging. During her time as a faculty appointed member to the Department of Anesthesiology at NYULMC, Dr. Sacks-Zimmerman analyzed and presented data on post-operative cognitive dysfunction as well as derived research studies on cognitive issues post-operatively in cardiac patients and cognitive issues related to compliance in the wound care population. She currently runs research projects that examine the efficacy of cognitive remediation programs on post-operative cognitive difficulties, and on how the characteristics of hope and resiliency impact mood and functionality after neurological surgery, within the Department of Neurological Surgery Weill Cornell Medical College, Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center.