Raed Joundi
PHRI Scientist Raed Joundi has been named the inaugural Anne Marie Brune/PHRI Chair in Vascular Dementia, effective July 1, 2025. Joundi is assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University and a stroke neurologist at Hamilton Health Sciences.
As chairholder, Joundi will strengthen the research program in vascular cognitive impairment and dementia at McMaster University and PHRI. The chair is named in honour of Anne Marie Brune, whose estate gift enabled its establishment. It is also supported by contributions from PHRI, via Hamilton Health Sciences Research Institute, and McMaster’s Department of Medicine.
“I am deeply honored to receive this Chair in Vascular Dementia, made possible by the generosity of Anne Marie Brune, PHRI, and McMaster University,” says Joundi.
“The chair gives valuable recognition and support to this critical program and will build on momentum from the world-class research done at McMaster and PHRI. There is increasing recognition of the role of vascular contributors to dementia. As the global population ages, it has never been more urgent to find new strategies to prevent cognitive decline and dementia for people with vascular risk factors or vascular brain injury. Together, with my peers and mentors, I hope to find new vascular dementia prevention and treatment strategies to improve people’s health and lives.”
Joundi’s main academic interest is the vascular contributions to cognitive decline and dementia, with a focus on stroke and cerebrovascular disease. He is interested in evaluating new pathways and mechanisms to vascular cognitive impairment, finding novel strategies to prevent cognitive decline in those with vascular risk, and improving cognitive and functional outcomes in people with cerebrovascular disease.
He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Manitoba, MD from Queen’s University, DPhil from Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and neurology residency training at the University of Toronto. He then completed a stroke fellowship and MSc in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Calgary supported by a CIHR Fellowship Grant.
He leads the PROSPECT study, a global initiative at PHRI tracking cognitive and functional outcomes in stroke survivors. His work also leverages large-scale population data, cohort studies, cognitive sub-studies of clinical trials, neuroimaging, and biomarker data, aiming to uncover determinants of vascular cognitive impairment in those with and without stroke, improve patient outcomes, and inform guidelines and policy.
“Today, dementia caused by vascular disease is one of the most pressing health challenges we face. The Anne Marie Brune/PHRI Chair in Vascular Dementia will build on PHRI’s extensive clinical, neuroimaging, and biomarker databases to identify modifiable risk factors and better understand what protects against vascular cognitive impairment. The knowledge gained will help reduce the burden of dementia, improve care, inform public health, and support healthy aging,” says Hertzel Gerstein, interim executive director of PHRI.
In 2024, Joundi received the Heart & Stroke Foundation New Investigator Award – including the Barnett Award for highest rank among stroke applications, and both the Vascular Cognitive Impairment Award and the Paul Dudley White Award from the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association.
“I want to congratulate Dr. Joundi on his appointment as the Anne Marie Brune/PHRI Chair in Vascular Dementia,” says Mark Crowther, chair of the Department of Medicine at McMaster University. “This chair recognizes his outstanding contributions to stroke research and his commitment to improving outcomes for patients living with vascular cognitive impairment; it will also help Anne Marie’s legacy live on in perpetuity. We are proud to support his continued leadership in this critical area of brain health — Dr. Joundi’s appointment to this chair will build on McMaster’s world leading strength in stroke and cognitive research.”
