Salman Azhar, M.D., chair of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, is an accomplished stroke specialist who has helped build Lutheran's Stroke Center into one of the best-rated centers in the country. He played a critical role in the Department of Health's naming of Lutheran Medical Center as a Designated Stroke Center. He has developed a full-service multidisciplinary center that employs a three dimensional approach to treating stroke: prevention, rapid intervention and rehabilitation. He received his bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University, his medical degree from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and completed postgraduate neurological training at the Medical College of Virginia Hospital and Mt. Sinai Medical Center. He was awarded a two-year cerebrovascular fellowship at the National Institute of Health to examine the clinical management and protocols of stroke and research the inflammatory mechanism of stroke.