CNS SPRING CONFERENCE 2024:
AI & Hot Topics in Neurology

SPEAKER PROFILES

AND

DISCLOSURES

Stella

Stella B. Legarda, MD

is the current California Neurology Society President and Membership Chair of CNS. She is a pediatric neurologist, clinical neurophysiologist, and epilepsy specialist practicing in Monterey, California. In 2013 Dr. Legarda left academia to join her current multispecialty Montage Medical Group where her current research interests in applied neuromodulation compel her practice to include adults with epilepsy and other acquired central nervous system disorders (stroke, Parkinson disease, encephalopathies, post-encephalitides, and dementias). She has published in peer-reviewed medical journals on a range of subjects namely epilepsy, clinical neurophysiology, and the value of infralow frequency (ILF) brain training in neurology practice. [Dr. Legarda recently penned a chapter “Remediating Brain Instabilities in a Neurology Practice” in the second edition of ‘Restoring the Brain: Neurofeedback as an Integrative Approach to Health’ (Ed. Kirk,H, 2020), and in 2020 received a Physician Scholar grant award from the Montage Health Foundation to evaluate the treatment response of patients with post-concussion syndrome to ILF neuromodulation.] Dr. Legarda has held past academic appointments at the University of Florida College of Medicine and at Georgetown University College of Medicine. Dr. Legarda is also a current CNS Delegate to the CMA.

Daniel Bandari, MD

Daniel Bandari, MD is the Medical Director and the Founder of the Multiple Sclerosis Center of California & Research Group in Laguna Hills, as well as a California and Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neuro-immunology. He is the previous director of the MS Center at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Bandari completed his residency in Neurology at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He completed his fellowship training in neuro-immunology and multiple sclerosis at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. His research has primarily focused on Remyelination Neuro-protection and Neuro-regeneration in MS and NMO as well as improvement in quality of life of MS patients. He is an advisor for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) and Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (MSF).

Lewis Blevins, MD

Lewis Blevins, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Neurological Surgery and the Director of the California Center for Pituitary Disorders at the University of California, San Francisco. He earned his MD degree at Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University and completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospitals. After completing a fellowship in endocrinology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, he served on the faculty at Emory University for four years and at Vanderbilt University for nine years. He has been on faculty at UCSF for 17 years. His clinical and research interests are in the realm of outcomes of treatments for pituitary disorders and diagnostic tests for hypercortisolism. He has received numerous teaching awards.

Amy Brooks-Kayal, MD

Amy Brooks-Kayal, MD is Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology and the Andrew John Gabor, M.D., Ph.D., Presidential Chair in Neurology at University of California Davis School of Medicine. Clinically, she is a pediatric epileptologist. Her research focuses on the effects of epileptogenic brain injury on neuronal signaling pathways and neurotransmitter systems with particular emphasis on understanding the molecular regulation of GABA(A) receptor expression, and on development of novel therapeutics for the prevention, treatment and cure of epilepsy. She was previously the President of the American Epilepsy Society (AES), and is currently a director of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and Associate Editor of Epilepsy for the Annals of Neurology. She was a recipient of the 2019 AES Founders Award, the 2021 International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Ambassador for Epilepsy Award, and the 2023 Child Neurology Society Bernard Sachs Award.

Edward Chang, MD

Edward Chang, MD is the Joan and Sanford Weill Chair and Jeanne Robertson Distinguished Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Chang’s clinical expertise is surgical therapies for epilepsy, pain, and brain tumors. He specializes in advanced neurophysiologic brain mapping methods, including awake speech and motor mapping, to safely perform neurosurgical procedures in eloquent areas of the brain. His research focuses on the discovery of cortical mechanisms of high-order neurological function in humans. Dr. Chang’s laboratory has demonstrated the detailed functional organization of the human speech cortex and has translated those discoveries towards the development of a speech neuroprosthetic device to restore communication for people living with paralysis. Dr. Chang is the 2015 Blavatnik National Laureate in Life Sciences and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Meeryo Choe, MD

Meeryo Choe, MD is a pediatric sports neurologist practicing at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital/UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Program Director for the Child Neurology Residency. Dr. Choe is also Associate Director for the UCLA Steve Tisch BrainSPORT program. Dr. Choe trained as a Neurotrauma/Sports Neurology Fellow at UCLA with Dr. Christopher Giza, combining her personal interest in sports with her professional interest in the developing brain. Her clinical and research interests include post-traumatic headache/migraine, sex differences in outcome after concussion, and dysautonomia.

Robert Cowan, MD, FAAN

Robert Cowan, MD, FAAN is a Higgins Family Trust Professor of Neurology and Neurosciences and Director of Research for Headache and Facial Pain at Stanford University. He is Board Certified in the areas of: Psychiatry, Neurology, Pain Medicine and holds subspecialty certification in Headache Medicine. Dr. Cowan is a past-President of the Headache Cooperative of the Pacific, a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Headache Society and sits on the boards of the Alliance for Headache Diseases Advocacy and the Headache Cooperative of the Pacific. He is the author of The Keeler Migraine Method (Penguin/Avery, 2008). Dr. Cowan is a co-founder of BonTriage, LLC, which develops AI-assisted tools to aid in the diagnosis, education, and care of people with chronic medical conditions. Dr. Cowan’s research focuses on utilizing Large Language Models to improve diagnosis, and management of chronic diseases through analysis of functional imaging, deep phenotyping and wet lab data.

Jeffrey Klingman, MD

Jeffrey Klingman, MD is former Chair of Neurology, Kaiser Permanente, N. California. He is a Trustee of the California Medical Association, Past President of the Alameda Contra Costa Medical Association, and Delegate to the American Medical Association. He serves on the California Technology Assessment Forum and is President- Elect of the California Neurological Society. Dr. Klingman received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and he completed both his internship and residency at the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center. Dr. Klingman has co-authored numerous articles, including evidence-based guidelines, primarily related to stroke care.

Christopher Lock, MD, PhD

is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department Neurology & Neurological Sciences at Stanford University. He also serves as the Clinical Trials Director for Stanford Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology program. He received his medical education from the Westminster Medical School in the U.K. He went onto complete his internship in Internal Medicine followed by a Neurology residency at Stanford University. He then went on to complete a Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis Fellowship at Stanford University. From 2016 -2017 he served as a member of the SHC Pharmacy and Therapeutics Specialty Drug Sub-Committee and is also a current member of the American Academy of Neurology. He has received numerous awards such as the Barry Prize, Associate of King’s college Exam at King’s College, London and the Clinician Scientist award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (1997-2000).

Guy Pallet

Guy Pallet started his career in 1994 at IBM France on mainframe programming. He started developing AI in 1980 using Experts Systems in a new company, DataSud Systems. In 1989 Guy was involved in software neural networks designed by Professor Leon N. Cooper, Brown University (Physics Nobel Prize laureate) who started Nestor US (as Neuron Storage) in Providence RI. Then, Guy teamed with IBM Labs in Paris and co-patented with IBM, the ZISC (Zero Instruction set architecture) which is the ancestor of the current NeuroMem® technology. Guy eventually moved to the Bay Area and co-founded General Vision in 1999 with Anne Menendez. General Vision designed NeuroMem 1K (1K neurons) in 2007, licensed Intel for CURIE and Nepes (Korea) for NM500. NeuroMem has been used successfully in “anomaly detection” around the World. Currently, General Vision is developing a wearable device able to detect subtle anomalies in the blood flow using photoplethysmography with a very potent silicon NeuroMem.

Leila Parand, MD

Leila Parand, MD is a board-certified neurologist with specialized training in neurobehavior and related dementias. She is Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology at UCLA School of Medicine, where she specializes in managing neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Corticobasal Syndrome, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Parkinson’s disease. Actively involved in multi-phase treatment trials, she emphasizes the significance of offering families the opportunity to participate in clinical research as a potential care strategy. She also collaborates on NIH-funded research in related areas.

Kimberly Pargeon, MD

Kimberly Pargeon, MD is an attending physician in the Department of Neurology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurology at UCLA. After receiving her medical degree from Ohio State University, she completed her internship and Neurology residency at the University of Maryland Medical. She then completed a two-year fellowship in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy at Columbia University/New York-Presbyterian. After her fellowship, she joined the faculty at Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx. She then joined the Neurology faculty at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and was recently a member of the Neurology faculty at Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was the director of the epilepsy monitoring unit and the training clinics for neurology residents and fellows. After relocating to the Los Angeles area, she joined the Neurology faculty at Harbor-UCLA, where she is the medical director for the clinical neurophysiology lab and the neurology clinics. She is board-certified in both Neurology and Epilepsy and is a fellow for the American Epilepsy Society and the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society. She has special interests in treatments for medically refractory epilepsy, women’s issues in epilepsy, neuro critical-care EEG, and trainee education.

Paula Ravin, MD

Paula Ravin, MD serves as Chair of the Association of California Neurologists’ Foundation. She is an Associate Professor of Neurology at UCLA, with a specialty in movement disorders. She has been at UCLA since 2016. Her background includes undergraduate studies at Yale University, Medical School at Wayne State University School of Medicine, Neurology residency at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and she did a fellowship in movement disorders at NIH. She chairs the Association of Neurologists Foundation on behalf of the California Neurology Society and is also a member of the CNS Education Program Planning Committee.

George Sarka MD, DrPH, MPH

George Sarka MD, DrPH, MPH is the Director of the CME Committee at Memorial Care, Saddleback Medical Hospital (2021-2024); Current Secretary of the CNS (2018-2024); Chair of the Medical History Division of the CNS; Past President of the CNS (2015-2016); Past Governor of the ACP (2008-2012); Past President of the LANS (2006-2009);Past President of the LACMA-District 1(2006-2008); and Former Associate Clinical Professor at UCLA (2007-2023). He is currently an Attending Staff in Rheumatology and Chair of the CME Committee at CSMC; a Neurologist at Memorial Care Saddleback Medical Center; and an Internist and Multispecialist/Public Health Specialist at CSUN. He received his MDCM from McGill University in 1980; MPH and DrPH from UCLA in 2003/2013; Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals (1980-1983); Fellowship in Rheumatology at LSU (1983-1985); second Residency in Neurology at LAC-USC (1985-1988). He has given over 1100 lectures on a plethora of medical/historical topics and is a diplomate in 10 subspecialties.

Jeremy Slater, MD

Jeremy Slater, MD brings extensive expertise in neurology, particularly in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology, with a significant focus on integrating artificial intelligence into EEG analysis. His work in developing machine intelligence for EEG interpretation and his leadership roles in various neurology departments highlight his commitment to advancing neurological sciences through innovative technology. Dr. Slater completed his medical education at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and worked as a professor in the Neurology department at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston from 2014 to 2022. Dr. Slater is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Stratus in Irving, Texas.

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Robert

CNS Legislative Section

Stella B. Legarda, MD

Robert Weinmann, MD

is a Past President of the California Neurology Society (2021-22) and Legislative Chair. He is also a past president of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD). He has testified before the United States Congress and the California Legislature on healthcare issues including anti-trust reform. He spoke at the White House on managed care at the invitation of former President Bill Clinton. His op-eds have appeared in numerous newspapers and other media including the Congressional Record. He states that his public policy agitation in healthcare is bipartisan. Dr. Weinmann graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Comparative Literature then attended medical school and completed his neurology training at Stanford University. Dr. Weinmann was formerly editor-in- chief of Clinical EEG and Neuroscience).

Steve Cattolica

is the CNS Advocacy Consultant and Lobbyist. He is an experienced lobbyist with a demonstrated history of working in the government relations industry. Skilled in Nonprofit Organizations, Government, Media Relations, Coalitions, and Legal Writing. Building on more than 35 years of experience in health care and workers' compensation, he is proficient with lobbying, organizational and on- demand regulatory compliance consulting. He has a BA in Physical Sciences from U.C. Berkeley, and a Teaching Credential in Physical Sciences and Math from St. Mary's College of California.

Johanna Rosenthal, MD

is Legislative Co-Chair of CNS. She received her Bachelor of Science degree and continued her education to obtain her M.D. at George Washington University Hospital. She then completed her residency in Neurology at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and did her research in neuropathology at University of California – Los Angeles. Dr. Rosenthal is a neurologist in Fullerton, California, a Neurohospitalist in Colton at Arrowhead and Assistant Professor at CUSM.

Stella Legarda, MD (Speaker)

Jeffrey Klingman, MD

is Chief of Neurology, Kaiser Permanente, N. California. Dr. Klingman serves on a range of committees, including the New Technology Committee of The Permanente Medical Group, American Academy of Neurology, Movement Disorder Society, California Neurological Association, and American Stroke Association. He is also a Trustee of the California Medical Association, President of the American Heart Association (East Bay), and Past President of the Alameda Contra Costa Medical Association. Dr. Klingman received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and he completed both his internship and residency at the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center. Dr. Klingman has coauthored numerous articles, including evidence-based guidelines, primarily related to stroke care.

Steven Holtz, MD

is a past president of CNS and serves as CNS liaison to the AAN. He graduated from Boston U, School of Medicine medical school in 1974, did his residency at Kaiser Oakland and then a residency and fellowship in Boston. He held a clinical appointment in Neurology at UCSF and recently retired from practice in Walnut Creek.

Additional Board Officers and Committee Chairs:

Sharon Yegiaian, MD

is a Past President of CNS and presently the Webmaster. She was an undergraduate at USC and attended medical school at the University of Vermont. She did an Internship and Neurology residency at the University of Arizona. She then did a Neuromuscular & Autonomic Fellowship at Mayo Clinic and an EMG Fellowship at UCLA. Dr. Yegiaian is in private practice in Pasadena. She is director of the Pasadena Center for Neuromuscular Medicine and primary investigator of Care Access Research. She is a clinical professor at Casa Colina Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program, voluntary assistant Professor of Neurology at UCLA Neuromuscular Medicine, and Neurology Faculty at Huntington Hospital.

Robyn G. Young, MD

is a Past President of the California Neurology Society (2013-2014) and is present Treasurer of CNS. Prior to that she served as President of the San Francisco Neurological Society (2007-2008) and remains ex officio on the board. She grew up in Hoopeston, IL, home of the ‘Cornjerkers’. She earned a BS in chemistry at Stanford and her MD at Yale, where her thesis related to neurotransmitters in a rat model of Parkinson’s. She then did an Internal Medicine residency at California Pacific Medical Center and a Neurology residency at UCSF. She is in private practice in Alameda, CA, with a clinical interest in M.S. and neuroimmunology.

Paula Ravin, MD

serves as Chair of the Association of California Neurologists’ Foundation. She is an Associate Professor of Neurology at UCLA, with a specialty in movement disorders. She has been at UCLA since 2016. Her background includes undergraduate at Yale University, Medical School at Wayne State University School of Medicine, Neurology residency at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and she did a fellowship in movement disorders at NIH. She chairs the Association of Neurologists Foundation on behalf of the California Neurology Society.

Marc R. Nuwer, MD, PhD

is the CNS representative on Medicare Services. Dr. Nuwer obtained his MD and PhD from Stanford, then his neurology residency and fellowships in epilepsy and neurophysiology at UCLA. He presently serves as Director of the Clinical Neurophysiology Program. He is the first neurologist to develop spinal cord intraoperative monitoring, reducing the risk of surgery by more than 60%. He went on to pioneer critical care EEG monitoring. Together with Epileptologist J Engel, they built the first commercial epilepsy monitoring unit. Dr. Nuwer championed an international effort changing EEG from a paper- ink method to a digital method. In his role in the American Medical Association's policy-making body, he advocates for improvement in medical care across the US. Dr. Nuwer is recognized internationally as a leader in his field. Dr. Nuwer is a past president of CNS and serves as advisor on Medicare and as our representative to Medicare.

Said R. Beydoun, MD

is Professor and Division Chief, Neuromuscular Medicine, at the Department of Neurology at Keck Medicine of USC, University of Southern California. He is Program Director of an ACGME-accredited Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship, which trains three physicians each year. Dr. Beydoun advocates an integrated approach to clinical diagnosis, diagnostic testing, and treatment options for patients with neuromuscular diseases. As a principal investigator, Dr. Beydoun has participated in multiple research clinical trials. His clinical and research areas of expertise in the field of Neuromuscular Medicine include: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Myasthenia Gravis, Peripheral Neuropathy, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP), Multifocal Motor Neuropathy (MMN), and TTR Amyloid Neuropathy. He has been published in several scientific journals on topics related to neuromuscular diseases. He is co-Editor-in-Chief of TouchReviews in Neurology. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and a fellow of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine. He is a member of the medical/scientific advisory board of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America. He is medical director of the Certified ALS Treatment Center of Excellence at Keck USC. Dr. Beydoun also serves on the board of directors for the California Neurology Society.

Richard P. Knudsen, MD

graduated, with Highest Honors, from UC Davis with an individual, interdepartmental major in Human Biology. He attained his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati and completed his Pediatric Residency at UC Irvine Medical Center. He returned to University of CIncinnati (hometown) and attained, in a 3 -year post-doctoral Fellowship, his formal training in Pediatric Neurology. He later achieved a second Fellowship, in Advanced Clinical Neurophysiology/Electroencephalography/Epileptology,, from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He has served, in academic Professorships, at the University of Washington and at the University of California. He is Board Certified in 5 + disciplines; his passion is Sleep- Wake Medicine. He is an active member of the Sleep Research Society and of our California Sleep Society. He is a Fellow, Elect, of the AASM. He is published in MedLinkNeurology and in Medscape; Dr. Knudsen enjoys generating, serially, provocative lectureships for his respected colleagues.

Scott Zamvil, MD, PhD

is a Donnie Smith Chair in Multiple Sclerosis Research, Professor of Neurology, and Faculty Member in the Program in Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford and his neurology residency training at Harvard's Longwood Program. He was a Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Dr. Zamvil is focused on understanding how CNS antigen (Ag)-specific T cells participate in multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO) In the last several years, he has applied his experience studying T cell recognition of myelin Ags in EAE and MS to identification of T cells that recognize aquaporin-4 (AQP4), the autoantigen in NMO. His group provided the first evidence that AQP4-specific T cells exist in NMO patients and in mice. In humans, we observed, (1) the frequency of AQP4-reactive T cells is higher in NMO patients than in controls, (2) T cells specific for the immunodominant AQP4 epitope exhibit a Th17 bias, (3) those AQP4-reactive T cells also recognize a homologous amino acid sequence in a Clostridium perfringens ABC transporter, suggesting molecular mimicry, and, recently, (4) there is an overabundance of C. perfringens in the gut microbiome of NMO patients. Currently, his lab is examining those elements that control selection of AQP4-specific T cells and evaluating how the gut microbiome may influence development of AQP4-specific T cells.

Hosted Program Speakers

Claudia A. Chiriboga, MD

is a professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at CUIMC and former Interim Director of the Division of Child Neurology, Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is also former Chief of Pediatric Neurology at Columbia University’s affiliate hospital, Harlem Hospital Center. Dr. Chiriboga graduated with Honors from the Faculty of Medicine at the National University of Buenos Aires in 1982. She completed training in pediatrics at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in 1985. After completing her training in child neurology in 1988 at the Neurological Institute and Babies Hospital of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Dr. Chiriboga joined the Division of Child Neurology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Subsequently, she completed a Neuroepidemiology fellowship at the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and received an MPH fro, Columbia University. Dr. Chiriboga serves/has served on committees of the NIH, CNS, and ABPN. Dr. Chiriboga's current research focuses on Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) clinical trials. Her clinical practice focuses on neuromuscular disorders as well as developmental, neurobehavioral neurology, and migraine, and on the treatment of spasticity.

Maria Cristina Ospina M.D., M.B.A

is a movement disorders neurologist in private practice in Phoenix, Arizona. She received her medical training from St. George’s University School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years. During her medical career, Dr. Ospina has been active in medical research, participating in several NIH and pharmaceutical sponsored clinical trials. She has served as an investigator in the Parkinson Study Group as well as an invited speaker on a variety of topics related to movement disorders. She is trained in both the administration of botulinum toxin for dystonia and the use of Deep Brain Stimulation. She believes in utilizing complementary modalities in Parkinson’s care and is an advocate for exercise to improve gait, flexibility and mood.

Michael Pulley MD, PhD

is a professor of Neurology at the University of Florida and a neurologist at the UF Health Neuroscience Institute specializing in clinical neurophysiology, multiple sclerosis, and neuromuscular medicine. Dr. Pulley received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Marland. He completed his residency training in Neurology at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina in 1997, as well as fellowship training in clinical neurophysiology at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore in 1998. Dr. Pulley has over 20 years of experience as a board-certified neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist.

Khashayar Dashtipour, MD, PhD

is a board-certified neurologist subspecializing in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease, tremor, dystonia, restless legs syndrome, Huntington’s Disease, Tardive Dyskinesia, and Spasticity. Dr. Dashtipour is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Basic Sciences and serves as the Director of the Division of Movement Disorders at Loma Linda University. Dr. Dashtipour received his medical degree from the Università Politecnica delle Marche Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, followed by a neurology residency at the Keck Hospital of USC and at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. He has been the principal investigator or sub-investigator of over 40 clinical trials. In addition, he is an active member of the Parkinson Study Group, The American Academy of Neurology, and the Movement Disorders Society. Since 2017, he has served on the Movement Disorders Society CME Committee. A focus of Dr. Dashtipour’s research has been about lifestyle modification in Parkinson’s disease, finding a biomarker for Parkinson’s disease, and developing new medications for managing movement disorders.

Speaker Disclosures

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