EPILEPSY FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Silverleaf Wealth Management / Nebraska
Job Titles:
- Chief Technology Officer at Petal / New York
Job Titles:
- Member of the Officers Team
- Chairman / New York, NY
Job Titles:
- Board Vice - Chair of the Epilepsy Foundation New England
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at Mayo Clinic Arizona
Dr. Crepeau is an assistant professor at Mayo Clinic Arizona. She is a graduate of Saint Louis University School of Medicine and performed a Neurology residency at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, followed by Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology fellowships at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Crepeau is board certified in Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology and Epilepsy.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Oak HC / FT
Job Titles:
- Partner at Grant Thornton, LLP
Job Titles:
- Anup Patel
- Director of the Epilepsy Genetics Program at Boston Children 's Hospital
Annapurna (Ann) Poduri MD, MPH, is the director of the Epilepsy Genetics Program at Boston Children's Hospital and associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. A leader in the field of neurogenetics, Ann brings together cutting-edge science with novel approaches to medicine. Through her innovative multi-disciplinary program that spans from the clinic to the laboratory, she has launched concept-changing studies that continue to reveal many genetic causes for epilepsy, a condition that affects 1 in 26 people.
Ann's career as a physician-scientist was kindled at Harvard (Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude 1994), where she studied neuroscience in the classroom and in the lab. She combined her love of pediatrics and neuroscience through training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (Medical Doctorate 1998), Boston Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Harvard School of Public Health (Master of Public Health 2007).
Ann has taken on a fundamental and largely unasked, and until recently unanswerable, question-what causes each person's epilepsy? Driven by a mission to understand this condition to transform how people are diagnosed and treated, Ann has brought together physicians, genetic counselors, researchers, and students in her clinic and laboratory. Together, they bring modern genomics and increasingly precise genetic diagnoses to patients, they bring human disease insight into zebrafish and other models, and they pursue basic neurodevelopmental studies that are relevant to human brain development and disease.
Ann's research has garnered support from the National Institutes of Health, private foundations, and philanthropic contributions. Her contributions have been recognized through numerous honors, including the American Neurological Association's Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award and the American Academy of Neurology's Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award. Her novel translational and collaborative approach has been held up as a model nationally and her perspective sought widely, with recent citations in Science, the Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe. She is proud to represent her group internationally, as an invited member of the Genomics Commission of the International League Against Epilepsy and as chair of the American Epilepsy Society/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Benchmarks Stewards Committee. Ann recognizes the key roles that her mentors have played in her career development, and she aspires to provide as many opportunities for her colleagues and trainees as have been bestowed upon her.
Ann enjoys travel, photography, and reading with her husband Christopher Hug, their twin daughters Asha and Sita, and their family and friends near and far.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Leadership Team
- Chief Outcomes Officer
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Research and Innovation
Job Titles:
- Founder & Designer of Camila Coelho Collection / California
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Finance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Officers Team
- Vice Chair / Senior VP, Government Relations at Parsons Corporation / Virginia
Job Titles:
- Vice President & Senior Counsel for Marriott International / Virginia
Job Titles:
- Midwest Select Insurance Group LLC / Wisconsin
Daniel Friedman MD, MSc, is an associate (clinical) professor of neurology at the New York University (NYU) Langone School of Medicine and a member of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. He is also the co-director of the video-EEG (electroencephalography) laboratory at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Officers Team
- Treasurer / Chairman at LivaNova, PLC / Texas
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Leadership Team
- Vice President, Human Resources
Job Titles:
- CEO and Chairman at Hawk Investments, L.P
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Leadership Team
- Vice President, Digital Strategy
Job Titles:
- Angel Hernandez
- Chief of the Division of Neurosciences
- Reviewer for the Journals Epilepsia
Dr. Angel Hernandez is the chief of the Division of Neurosciences at the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He received his medical degree from the Ponce School of Medicine in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Dr. Hernandez completed his pediatric residency from Michigan State University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He continued on for his fellowships in child neurology, and then pediatric epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Hernandez is board certified by the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry (ABPN) with special qualifications in child neurology, ABPN with special qualifications in clinical neurophysiology and ABPN with special qualifications in epilepsy.
He is a member of numerous committees and professional societies, including a member of the Foundation's Professional Advisory Board where he has served in the executive, nominating and advocacy committees. He is also former Foundation Board member and current member and former chair of the Epilepsy Foundation Texas - Houston/Dallas-Fort Worth/West Texas Professional Advisory Board. He is the current chair of the Resource and Information Committee of the American Epilepsy Society and member of the Finance Committee of the Child Neurology Society. He is also a member of the American Academy of Neurology epilepsy section and Texas Neurological Society.
Dr. Hernandez currently serves as reviewer for the journals Epilepsia, Pediatric Neurology and American Family Physician. He previously served at the chief of neurology, medical director of the Magnetoencephalography Center and co-director of The Jane and John Justin Neurosciences Center Cook Children's Health Care System Fort Worth, Texas until 2016. He was also a distinguished consultant for Cook Children's Physician Network, vice chairman of the Cook Children's Home Health Board of trustees, and former president of the professional medical staff at Cook Children's Medical Center. He served as director of the comprehensive epilepsy program and epilepsy monitoring unit at Cook Children's until December 2010.
Dr. Hernandez was elected by the International League Against Epilepsy as visiting professor to Central and South America and has educated neurologists, neurosurgeons and child neurologists in the diagnosis and management of epilepsy and improving the quality of life of children and adults suffering from epilepsy in El Salvador and Ecuador.
Dr. Hernandez's clinical and research interests are in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with medically intractable epilepsy. His research and publications have focused on improving the diagnosis and management of children with intractable epilepsy. He has been honored as one of the "Top Doctors" by Fort Worth Magazine.
Dr. Barry Gidal is a professor of pharmacy and neurology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Pharmacy and Department of Neurology. He is also the chair of the Pharmacy Practice Division at that institution.
He received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Utah, and his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Washington in Seattle. He has also completed his residency as well as a research fellowship in clinical pharmacokinetics at the University of Washington.
Dr. Gidal's research interests are in the pharmacotherapy of epilepsy. He has numerous research, clinical publications and book chapters relating to anti-epileptic drug pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics and drug interactions in adults with epilepsy. He maintains an active clinical practice at the William S. Middleton Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital Epilepsy Clinic. In particular, his interests are in the use of anti-epileptic drugs in the elder person with epilepsy, as well as people with traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Gidal has served on the editorial boards for several journals including Epilepsia, Epilepsy Research, Epilepsy & Behavior, Epilepsy Currents and Annals of Pharmacotherapy. He is an active member of several professional organizations including the American Epilepsy Society, where he serves on several committees. He is also a member of the Foundation's Professional Advisory Board.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Co
- Elaine Wirrell
Dr. Elaine Kiriakopoulos is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, and the Director of the HOBSCOTCH Institute for Cognitive Health and Well-Being at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Epilepsy Center. She is a graduate of McMaster University Medical School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She completed her neurology residency and an Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, as well as a Research Fellowship in Functional MRI and Transcranial Magnetic Brain Stimulation at Harvard University, studying cross modal plasticity in the adult human brain. Post training, she remained in Boston and served as a Harvard Medical Faculty Physician, combining a clinical epilepsy practice with research focused on improving diagnosis, treatment and patient outcomes in epilepsy. At Dartmouth's HOBSCOTCH Institute for Cognitive Health and Well-Being she leads efforts aiming to; expand epilepsy education for patients and providers, broaden epilepsy self-management program dissemination and implementation, and extend clinical research focused on epilepsy and self-management in diverse patient populations.
Dr. Kiriakopoulos has held numerous non-profit leadership roles including the Epilepsy Foundation's National Director of Health Communications and Engagement, where she led public health efforts focused on accessible health education and improving systems of care for people living with epilepsy.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical and Innovation Officer
- Professor in the New York University
Dr. Jacqueline French is a professor in the New York University (NYU) Department of Neurology and Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. She is also founder/director of the Epilepsy Study Consortium, an academic group that has performed a number of early phase clinical trials in epilepsy and has developed new methodologies for epilepsy trials.
Dr. French trained in neurology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and did her fellowship training in EEG (electroencephalography) and epilepsy at Mount Sinai hospital and Yale University. She is the past president of the American Epilepsy Society (AES) and is the 2005 recipient of the AES Service Award and the 2013 Epilepsy Foundation Hero award. She has served on the AES board and is the past Secretary of the American Society of Experimental Neurotherapeutics.
Dr. French has focused her research efforts on the development of new therapeutics for epilepsy and new methodologies for clinical trials. Dr. French has been active in creating guidelines for the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the International League Against Epilepsy. She chaired an AAN/AES committee that produced two widely quoted guidelines on the use of new antiepileptic drugs. She has served as chair of the International League Against Epilepsy North American Regional Commission and Commission on Therapeutic strategies. She has authored over 200 articles and chapters, is the editor of three books, and lectures internationally on clinical trials and use of antiepileptic drugs.
Dr. John Hixson earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He completed his internship and residency in neurology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He then completed a fellowship training in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
Dr. Hixson has been at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) since 2006. He has also been with the San Francisco Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center since 2008, where he is sees patients through the VA Epilepsy Center of Excellence and is involved with regional and national clinical informatics and health technology development programs.
Dr. Hixson is devoted to the use of digital health solutions for veterans dealing with epilepsy and seizures. He seeks to improve our current efforts at implementing and spreading the use of these valuable resources and tools.
Dr. Katherine Noe is an associate professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. After neurology residency training at Baylor College of Medicine, she completed her fellowship training in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Her clinical practice involves medical and surgical care of adults with epilepsy. She is an active Board member and past chair of the Epilepsy Foundation of Arizona.
Dr. Noe has specific research interests in improving quality and safety in the care of persons with epilepsy.
Job Titles:
- Matthew Hoerth
- Physician at Central Neurology in St
Dr. Kristine S. Ziemba is a physician at Central Neurology in St. Petersburg, Florida. She is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in epilepsy, clinical neurophysiology, and neurology.
She completed her Bachelor of Science degree at Arizona State University. She then went on to complete her medical degree and physiology doctorate at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She completed her neurology residency and epilepsy fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
She has published numerous papers and given several presentations in the field of epilepsy research and care.
Dr. Mohamad Koubeissi is an associate professor of neurology and director of the Epilepsy Center at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He earned his bachelor's degree with honors in mathematics (1995) and his medical degree (1999) from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon. He spent a year as a postdoctoral research fellow at AUB before he pursued his clinical training in neurology at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York (2000-2002) and at New York University in New York, New York (2002-2004) and in epilepsy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland (2004-2006).
He was on faculty at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, for 6 years before he joined George Washington University in 2012. During, and after, his training, Dr. Koubeissi has started new lines of research projects in epilepsy. He has lectured on the medical and surgical treatment of intractable epilepsy all over the Unites States, as well as in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. He has published papers in esteemed medical journals and has edited three books on epilepsy. He has earned numerous honors and is a reviewer for a number of major journals.
Job Titles:
- General Counsel & CCO at Petal Card, Inc
Job Titles:
- Member of the EVF Board of Directors
- Board Chairman, Neuropace
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Member of the EVF Board of Directors
- CEO of Antios Therapeutics
- CEO, Antios Therapeutics / Board Chairman, EVF
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Regional Teams
Job Titles:
- Partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP / Georgia
Job Titles:
- Is Director of the Neuropsychiatry
Jay Salpekar MD is director of the Neuropsychiatry in Epilepsy Program at Kennedy Krieger Institute and associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Executive Director, Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York, 3 Washington Square, Albany, NY 12205 or You May Forward It Electronically to
Job Titles:
- Member of the Officers Team
- Chairman / President and General Manager at Gulf States Toyota / Texas
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Canal Pointe Capital
Job Titles:
- Member of the EVF Board of Directors
- CEO, Oxford Biomedica
Job Titles:
- Chief Marketing Officer at Quad / New York
Job Titles:
- Marketing, Communications & Special Events Coordinato R
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Public Health and Outcomes
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the EVF Board of Directors
- Member of the Staff Leadership Team
- President & CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation of America / Maryland
Laura Thrall brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in the nonprofit sector to her role as Chief Executive Officer for Epilepsy Foundation of America. A four-time CEO, Thrall previously served as CEO for D.C. based CureSearch for Children's Cancer, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, and YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago.
In each of her leadership roles, Thrall led transformations of established legacy operations to more efficiently deliver measurable impact for their constituencies. In her most recent role at CureSearch, she transformed the organization from the largest federal grantee in childhood cancer to a privately funded entity focused on driving promising therapeutics into the clinic. While at CureSearch, Thrall developed the Catapult model, an evergreen fund supporting clinic-ready projects led by academic investigators and small biopharma companies. She created and seated a community of 40 expert stakeholders including scientific, industry, and venture capital councils, and established the annual CureSearch Catapult Summit, an outcomes-based forum to advance childhood cancer therapeutics.
In addition to her staff leadership positions, Thrall has served in a variety of civic and board leadership roles. She served as an appointed member on two Illinois Governor's Commissions, chaired the Chicago Alliance for Collaborative Effort, and was founding member of Illinois Partners for Human Services. Dedicated to the healthcare community, she served on the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division, the Cerebrovascular Institute of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board at Melwood, HTC, a large Mid-Atlantic agency dedicated to ensuring that adults with differing abilities are included in the workplace.
Laura holds a Master's degree in Public Service Management from DePaul University in Chicago. She and her partner Kevin Booth relocated to Annapolis, MD in 2012 and have five adult children between them residing in DC, New York, Chicago, LA, and Atlanta.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy
Job Titles:
- Member of the Officers Team
- Secretary / President and CEO at Receptor Life Sciences
Job Titles:
- Accounting & Human Resource Manager
Job Titles:
- Co - Owner of Live Fast Motorsports, Inc
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Neurology at Mayo Clinic
Dr. Hoerth is an assistant professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. He completed his neurology residency and his EEG, clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy fellowships at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
Job Titles:
- Partner at Kutak Rock, LLP
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Marketing and Communications
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Leadership Team
- Vice President, Development
Job Titles:
- Senior Counsel at Verily Life Sciences / California
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Leadership Team
- Chief Financial and Operations Officer
Job Titles:
- Member of the EVF Board of Directors
- Private Investor, Retired Fund Manager
Job Titles:
- Program Manager at Kamehameha Schools
Job Titles:
- CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado
Job Titles:
- TBI Service Coordinator / Sapphire
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of the Epilepsy Foundation Texas / Texas
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner at Iaso Ventures
Job Titles:
- Member of the Officers Team
- Chairman Elect / Indianapolis, in