Vincent Traynelis received his medical degree from West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown, where he also completed an internship in general surgery and a residency in neurosurgery. Following residency, Dr. Traynelis was a member of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Iowa for 20 years, rising to the rank of Professor. He joined the Department of Neurosurgery at Rush University Medical Center in 2009 where he is currently the A. Watson Armour and Sarah Armour Presidential Professor, Director of the Spine Service, and Vice Chair of the Department.

He is the Director of both the Neurosurgery Spine Fellowship and the Neurosurgery Residency Programs. Dr. Traynelis has an active clinical practice that solely focuses on surgery of the cervical spine and craniovertebral junction. Working in this region, he specializes in complex spine surgery, spinal deformity, spinal arthroplasty, spinal reconstruction, spinal tumors, and spinal cord tumors. He is a Past President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the Cervical Spine Research Society, and Past Chairperson of the Joint Section of Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves.

He was a Director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery for 6 years and served as the Vice Chair of the ABNS in 2014-2015. Dr. Traynelis is a regularly invited speaker at continuing medical education programs and is a frequent guest lecturer in this country as well as abroad. He has published more than 160 papers in peer-reviewed journals, more than 80 chapters, four books and over 200 editorials. He has been the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurosurgery Spine. Dr. Traynelis also serves on the editorial boards of Neurosurgery, Spine, Journal of Spinal Disorders and Operative Techniques, Global spine Journal, and the Journal of Clinical Neurology, Neurosurgery and Spine.

Dr. Traynelis' research interests include cervical spine surgery, spinal infections, operative monitoring and spinal biomechanics. He has received grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. Dr. Traynelis holds a number of patents for cervical spine devices.