About
Rida Ismail is a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She earned her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and Biomedical Research from UCLA, graduating summa cum laude with Highest Departmental Honors. As an undergraduate, she conducted concussion research in pediatric and athlete populations at the UCLA BrainSPORT Clinic. During her gap years before medical school, she served as the Lab Manager for the Bickart Lab, supporting clinical research in adult concussion.
Her research focuses on concussion, traumatic brain injury, sleep impairment, heart rate variability, and biomarkers of neurological recovery. She has received multiple travel awards to present her research at national conferences, such as the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting and the National Neurotrauma Symposium. Her honors include the 2025 National Neurotrauma Symposium Faden Award and the 2026 American Academy of Neurology Abstract of Distinction for her research on sleep impairment as an independent predictor of persistent post-concussion symptoms.