Dr. Lola B. Chambless is Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery and Radiation Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  She has served as the Residency Program Director in Neurological Surgery since 2018.  Her clinical practice is devoted to the surgical treatment of benign and malignant brain and skull base tumors and she is the surgical director of the Vanderbilt Pituitary Center and the Vanderbilt Radiosurgery Center.

Dr. Chambless was born in Birmingham, AL in 1979.  During her childhood she moved to Boston MA and later Fairview TN, a small rural community outside Nashville.  There she spent her teen years helping her mother build a horse breeding program on their family farm.  A lifelong equestrian, Dr. Chambless represented the USA in numerous international championships in the sport of Eventing, becoming the US Senior Champion in 2002 as a second-year medical student.  Later, as a neurosurgeon, Dr. Chambless has assisted in the development of helmet, head injury, and return-to-play protocols for equestrian organizations around the world.

As an undergraduate, Dr. Chambless attended Stanford University where she majored in Biological Sciences and developed an interest in cancer biology.  After graduation she matriculated to Vanderbilt University School of Medicine with the prestigious Canby Robinson Scholarship.  She remained at Vanderbilt for her residency in Neurological Surgery under the mentorship of George Allen and Reid Thompson who were instrumental in cultivating her interest in neurosurgical oncology.  To expand her skill set in advanced endoscopic procedures, she completed fellowship training with Charlie Teo in Sydney before returning to join the faculty at Vanderbilt.

In 2010 Dr. Chambless built the Vanderbilt Brain Tumor Outcomes lab, which she continues to direct.  Her research interests include the use of machine learning to develop predictive models for neurosurgical outcomes, as well as collaborative efforts with the department of biomedical engineering to model brain shift and design real-time stereotactic navigation systems.  She is deeply passionate about medical education and some of her scholarly work has focused on the application of scientific methodology to the study of neurosurgical training.

Dr. Chambless has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons since 2017, directing or codirecting programs including the CNS Leadership Institute, CNS Education Division, and CNS Data Science efforts.  She has two brilliant and busy daughters, Harper and Sims.  She loves outdoor adventures, marathon running, and traveling the world.