Holly Gilmer

Pediatric Neurosurgeon, Michigan Head & Spine Institute
Invited Speaker

Dr. Holly S. Gilmer graduated cum laude from Harvard University, and received her medical degree from the University of Michigan. She then completed residency in neurosurgery at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, followed by fellowships in peripheral nerve surgery at Louisiana State University Medical Center and pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital of Michigan/Detroit Medical Center. She is board-certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and the American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery.

Dr. Gilmer’s research and clinical specialties include Chiari malformations, dysraphism, hydrocephalus, neuro-oncology, peripheral nerve surgery, and craniofacial reconstruction. She has given over 90 lectures nationally and internationally, and is a regular reviewer for Neurosurgery, Operative Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery, Child’s Nervous System, and the Journal of the National Medical Association.

Dr. Gilmer is a past Director of the Board of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. She has served on the Executive Committees of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, AANS/CNS Joint Section on Spine and Peripheral Nerve, and the Council of State Neurosurgical Societies, the Board of Directors of the Wayne County Medical Society, and has been Vice-Chair of the CNS Education Committee. She is past President of Women in Neurosurgery, the Peripheral Nerve Task Force, and the Michigan Association of Neurological Surgeons. She was appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to the Michigan State Board of Medicine in 2019, and was elected Chair of the Board in 2023. She also currently serves on the Scientific and Advisory Board of the Bobby Jones Chiari and Syringomyelia Foundation. She was formerly Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Beaumont, Royal Oak, and Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Oakland University School of Medicine. She still gives the annual lecture on Cerebrospinal Fluid Anatomy and Physiology to the first year medical students at OU every year, and enjoys talking to medical students about careers in neurosurgery.

Holly S. Gilmer