Dr. Ecklund is currently the chairman of the Department of Neurosciences at Inova Fairfax Hospital, Virginia’s largest Trauma Center. Prior to coming to Inova in 2007, he served the last ten years as professor and chairman of the Neurosurgery Program of the National Capital Consortium, which includes Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and National Naval Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University. He obtained his undergraduate education at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He attended medical school at the Uniformed Services University and subsequently completed neurosurgical residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 1993.
Dr. Ecklund is a general neurosurgeon with primary clinic interests in neurotrauma, complex spine, and cerebrovascular disease. His research interests include neurotrauma with an emphasis on blast and penetrating injury. He directs a neurotrauma laboratory at the Uniformed Services University, has more than 100 publications and abstracts, and has lectured throughout the world in more than ten different countries. Until his recent retirement, he held the rank of COL in the US Army, and was deployed as a neurosurgeon to both Afghanistan and Iraq. His Neurosurgery Program received the vast majority of the American neurotrauma casualties from the Global War on Terrorism.
Dr. Ecklund has held numerous leadership positions within neurosurgical and national organizations including Chairman of the Membership Committee for the AANS, Chairman of the Joint Committee for Military Neurosurgeons of the AANS and CNS, President of the Washington Academy of Neurosurgery, and Program Director for the 11-19th International Spine and Peripheral Nerve workshops among others. He has also served on multiple oversight and advisory boards for the Veterans Administration, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, NATO, Neurotrauma Foundation, and Brain Trauma Foundation. He has won numerous awards.