Constance Smith-Hicks, MD PhD, directs the Center for Synaptic Disorders which incorporates the Rett Syndrome and Synaptopathies research and clinical programs at Kennedy Krieger Institute. She co-directs the FMR1 and Related Conditions Clinic with Dr. Dejan B. Budimirovic. Her primary research interests are in the areas of clinical trials, clinical trial readiness and translational research. She is particularly interested in the cause and consequence of sleep disturbance in neurodevelopmental disorders.
She is an Associate Professor in the department of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is a Board-certified Child Neurologist, a neurogeneticist and physician scientist. She obtained her MD and PhD degrees from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York. She completed her pediatric residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Child Neurology training at Johns Hopkins. She became interested in Fragile X during her post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Worley in the Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins.