Biography
Dr. Bowers is from the Intermountain West, having spent most of his youth in Salt Lake City and then attending the University of Denver on scholarship to play Division 1 soccer. The University of New Mexico was their big conference rival and he came to Albuquerque multiple times each year to play them and for the conference tournament. This intermountain region has always been home to him. He completed neurosurgical residency under Dr. William Couldwell at the University of Utah and received specialty training in skull base and cerebrovascular neurosurgery in Seattle prior to joining Westchester Medical Center in New York for the past 3 years. He has published over 40 scientific articles and given over 30 oral presentations on a wide variety of neurosurgical topics while winning numerous research awards, including the 2019 NREF Young Clinical Investigator Award, the 2015 AANS Synthes Skull Base Award, and the Resident Award for best talk at the Rocky Mountain Neurosurgery Meeting. Dr. Meic Schmidt, current chair for UNM Neurosurgery, brought him with him from Westchester to do neuro-oncology and skull base neurosurgery. The opportunity to come back home and rebuild a program with the wholehearted support from the University of New Mexico, the opportunity was too good to pass up on.
Personal Statement
I am a brain tumor and skull-base neurosurgeon. I treat and manage neoplasms of the brain and skull base. I am interested in minimally invasive approaches to brain tumor surgery. This involves using smaller incisions and smaller craniotomies to access deep lesions.
Providing care to the underserved is a huge part of my core beliefs so I started a Spanish-speaking clinic for the uninsured and underinsured population in New York. We have plans to set up a similar clinic here. People who are underinsured tend to present to the emergency room with problems that could have been dealt with years before if they had clinic access. Our biggest achievement of the past year was all the research we accomplished and helping Dr. Schmidt lead the neurosurgery service through a huge transition from the previous department.
Areas of Specialty
1. Skull Base Surgery- Endoscopic and Open
2. Neuro-oncology
3. Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery
4. Clinical Research
Education
Fellowship:
Skull Base and Cerebrovascular, Fellowship Dr. Johnny Delashaw, Department of Neurosurgery Swedish Neurosciences Institute, Seattle, WA
Residency:
Neurological Surgery Residency University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT
Medical School:
Neurological Surgery Residency University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT
Graduate:
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Undergraduate:
University of Denver, Denver, CO
Honors, Summa Cum Laude
Certifications
1. 2012 American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) Written Board Exam
a. Scored in the top 10% (92.4%) of all board examinees as a PGY-3
2. 2019 ABNS Board Certified after passing national oral board examination
Achievements & Awards
2019 NREF Young Clinical Investigator Award Recipient of Prestigious $40,000 Grant Awarded Annually by the NREF to the Best Two Research Project Proposals for all Neurosurgery Academic Attendings in First Two Years of Practice.
2015 Synthes Skull Base Award First author for study presented by William T. Couldwell, MD, PhD, at 2015 AANS 83rd Annual Scientific Meeting, Washington,D.C.
2004 “ESPN The Magazine” 1st Team Academic All-American NCAA Division I Soccer Recognized as one of the best eleven players in the country with a GPA greater than 3.20.
Key Publications
Journal Article
Niazi, TN, Bower, Christian, Schmidt, Meic, 2012
Languages
- English
- Spanish