Mark N. Hadley
2003, Denver
Mark Norman Hadley, the 53rd President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, was born and raised in Napa, California, one of three children of Jack and Marie Hadley. Mark was active in sports, scholastics, and student government through high school. He served as Student Body President his senior year, class Salutatorian, and was nationally ranked in the boy’s mile and half-mile runs. He was a National Merit Scholar and accepted a four-year scholarship to run track at Stanford University in 1974. Mark graduated from Stanford in 1978 with a BA in Economics as a four-year varsity letterman. He began his medical education at Albany Medical College in upstate New York in the summer of 1978, where he was profoundly influenced by A. John Popp, MD, Professor of Surgery and Neurosurgery. Mark received his MD degree in 1982. Dr. Hadley completed his general surgery internship at the University of California under F. William Blaisdale, MD, and began his post-graduate neurosurgical training in 1983 at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, under mentors Robert F. Spetzler, MD, Volker K.H. Sonntag, MD, Andrew E. Shetter, MD, John R. Green, MD, and others. Upon graduation in 1988, Dr. Hadley served three years as a neurosurgeon in the United States Air Force. In 1991 Dr. Hadley accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery under Richard B. Morawetz, MD, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in Birmingham, Alabama. His main areas of clinical and scientific interest are disorders of the human spine and spinal cord. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1993 and Professor in 1997. He has been actively involved in medical student, resident, and fellow education at UAB and has served as the Director of Resident and Medical Student Education, and continues in his roles as the Director of the Neurological Surgery Residency Training program and Director of the Neurological Surgery Spine Fellowship program. He is the Medical Director of an active regional THINK FIRST injury prevention program and has served as Team Physician to the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham athletic programs. Dr. Hadley has authored over 150 scientific articles and chapters in medical textbooks. He has authored or edited several compilations in Neurological Surgery, including Self Assessment for Neurological Surgeons (SANS) VI for the AANS and CNS in 1997, multiple educational videotapes, Video Perspectives in Neurological Surgery, and most recently, the comprehensive Guidelines for the Management of Acute Cervical Spine and Spinal Cord Injuries published as a supplement to NEUROSURGERY in March 2002. Dr. Hadley serves editorial roles for Spine, Nutrition, and several foundations, and serves on the Editorial Board of NEUROSURGERY (1999 to present). He has been a visiting professor at major universities throughout the United States and has received a variety of honors including the inaugural Frank H. Mayfield Award of the AANS/CNS Spine Section in 1984, and selection by his peers among America’s Top Doctors, 2001 and 2002. Dr. Hadley has been active in organized Neurosurgery since his residency training. He has served on the Executive Committees of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (1994-present) and of the AANS/CNS Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves (1992-1999). He has served as the Secretary of the CNS (1997-2000), as CNS Vice President (2001), President-elect (2002) and is currently the President. He has also served as a member of the AANS/CNS Washington Committee (2001-present). Dr. Hadley is a dedicated, fortunate husband and father. He and his lovely wife, Lori Frances Hadley, live in Birmingham with sons Christopher (14), Jack (7) and daughter Mollie (4), and dog Bucky. Mark and Lori run a busy but haphazard “multiple children to different activities” shuttle service and are band, math team, track, soccer, basketball, ballet, baseball, tennis, and golf enthusiasts. In their spare time they enjoy the beaches of the Destin-Seaside area of Florida (Lori’s birthplace and site of Mark and Lori’s marriage) and are active in the Birmingham community and in the Episcopal Church. Mark will be joined at this year’s Annual Meeting by many neurosurgeon scientists, friends and colleagues, former residents and fellows, his partners in practice at UAB, his older sister, Karen, younger brother, Paul, his immediate family (Lori, Christopher, Jack, and Mollie) and Lori’s parents.