Physician-in-Residence

Thursday, February 12, 2026 10:55 AM

Ward Hall

Dr. Allen Sills, chief medical officer (CMO) of the National Football League and professor of neurological surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will speak on "Faith, Family, and Football: A Sports Medicine Journey" to the on-campus community at 10:55 a.m. in Ward Hall, and at an informal “office hours” gathering with health science students at 2 p.m.

As the NFL's CMO, Sills is dedicated to advancing the health and safety of the sport of football. He became the NFL's first CMO in March 2017.

He works closely with team medical staffs across the league, the NFL Players Association and its advisors, and the many medical and scientific experts who comprise the NFL's medical committees. He coordinates with these medical experts to lead the league's efforts to make advances, on and off the field, to protect players from unnecessary risk through rule changes, evolution of equipment and robust injury reduction plans.

Sills led the NFL's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in consultation with the NFL and NFLPA medical advisors, including the infectious disease experts at Infection Control for Sports (ICS) and epidemiologists from IQVIA, in addition to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other public health officials.

Sills spearheaded the league's Injury Reduction Plan—a three-pronged approach aiming to reduce the incidence of concussions—which delivered results in the 2019 and 2018 seasons; with a 24 percent drop in reported concussions from the previous year.

He is an active researcher, having published over 170 scientific articles and presentations, including over 40 in the last five years on the topic of sports concussion. He is a member of the Concussion in Sport Group, which publishes international standards regarding concussion in sport. He is also a fellow of the American Board of Neurological Surgery and the American College of Surgeons.

Before joining the NFL, Sills served as a consulting neurosurgeon for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies, the NHL's Nashville Predators, the US Equestrian Foundation and the athletic programs at Vanderbilt University, Belmont University and Mississippi State University. He also served as an Unaffiliated Neurotrauma Consultant on the NFL sidelines, and as a neurological consultant to the NCAA and the International Equestrian Foundation.

Sills previously served as the founder and executive director of the Memphis Regional Brain Tumor Center; the director of the Neuroscience Institute at Methodist University Hospital, Memphis; an associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee, Memphis and the Semmes-Murphey Clinic; and as chief of the Division of Neurosurgery at the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Sills graduated summa cum laude from Mississippi State University with a degree in engineering and received his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, where he also went on to complete his internship in general surgery, his residency training in neurological surgery and an NIH-funded Neuro-Oncology Fellowship.

He serves on the Board of Directors for Make-A-Wish Foundation of Middle Tennessee, the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County Tennessee, and has served as a youth baseball coach for more than 20 years.