Wendy Campana is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Program in Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She is also a Principal Investigator at the San Diego VA Health Care System. Dr. Campana earned a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. She was a NIH Training Fellow under the supervision of Dr. John O’Brien in the Department of Neurosciences prior to joining the faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology at UCSD in 2003. Dr. Campana’s research focuses on the response to nerve injury and the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying transitions from acute to chronic pain. Specifically, she is an expert in peripheral glia, the Schwann cells and how they facilitate nerve repair. Her work established a foundation for the role of Schwann cells in peripheral sensitization/repair and neuropathic pain. Her lab pioneered the discovery of Schwann cell repair receptors (erythropoietin receptor; EpoR, and the low-density lipoprotein receptor related protein, LRP1) that are activated after nerve injury, and demonstrating how they modulate painful peripheral neuropathy. 

​Dr. Campana has authored over 75 peer-reviewed publications in peripheral nerve biology, spinal cord injury, Schwann cell physiology and neuropathic pain. Her work has been consistently extramurally funded throughout her career. Currently, she is funded by multiple NIH awards, VA merits, a DoD grant, and by the Office of the UC President. She has three patents.  She has served as a chartered member of two National Institute of health (NIH) study sections consecutively for 10 years including K awards (NST-1) and translational neurobiology (NSD-C). At UCSD, Dr. Campana is very active in the Academic Senate, serving as Chair of the Committee on Committees and will Chair the Committee on Academic Personnel (CAP) in 2023-2024.  She is dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. She co-founded the Society for Advancement of Women Anesthesiologists (SAWA) in 2012 and the Women in Health Sciences (WiHS) in 2014. She was the co-Director of WiHS in 2019-2020, and was actively engaged in the Health Sciences Gender Equity Review. Outside of science, her research program, and academic administrative roles, she enjoys cooking and is an avid yogi and equestrian.