Webinar

Paul P. Doghramji, MD, FAAFP, is a Senior Family Physician with Collegeville Family Practice and Medical Director of Health Services for Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Dr. Doghramji earned his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and completed residency in Family Practice at Chestnut Hill Hospital. He is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and was awarded the AAFP Fellowship Degree in 2005. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Doghramji has been the recipient of the American Medical Association’s Physician Recognition Award in every qualifying year for 8 years. He has extensively published his research in peer-reviewed journals such as the American Journal of Medicine, Current Medical Research and Opinion, and Postgraduate Medicine. He has authored articles for numerous websites on topics such as sleep disorders, gout, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), biology of leg disorders, depression, chronic pain, health literacy, and diabetes. He is a co-author of the textbook Clinical Management of Insomnia, now in its second edition.

Dr. Thorpy is a Professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Director of the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center in the Department of Neurology at Montefiore Medical Center, both in New York. In addition to treating patients with sleep disorders, he conducts research in narcolepsy, insomnia, and sleep apnea. He is President of the New York State Society of Sleep Medicine, Past President of the Sleep Section of the Academy of Neurology, and Past Secretary of the National Sleep Foundation. In 1993 Dr. Thorpy received the Nathaniel Kleitman Award from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, one of the field’s highest honors, and in 2012 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Sleep Foundation.

Born in New Zealand, Dr. Thorpy earned his medical degree from the University of Otago Medical School. After receiving postgraduate training in Dunedin, New Zealand; Bombay, India; and London, England, he completed his residency in neurology at the State University of New York in Syracuse and a neuroendocrinology fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Thorpy is board certified in sleep medicine.

He has published extensively on narcolepsy, insomnia, and sleep disorders. He chaired the first International Classification of Sleep Disorders and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, including publications in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine. His numerous books include The Encyclopedia of Sleep and Sleep Disorders, Parasomnias (2010), Sleepiness (2011), Neuroimaging of Sleep and Sleep Disorders (2012), Genetics of Sleep and Sleep Disorders (2013), Narcolepsy: a Clinical Guide (2016), and SleepMultiMedia, The Computerized Textbook of Sleep Medicine (v12).0 (2023).

Dr. Thorpy has given more than 100 television, radio, and print interviews on sleep disorders.

Adam Strzelczyk, MD, MHBA is a neurologist, geriatrician, and intensive care physician. His main research interests include health care research, clinical epileptology, electrophysiology, epileptic encephalopathies, and intensive care treatment of status epilepticus. He obtained his habilitation in 2014 at Philipps University Marburg on “Care, Cost of Illness, Morbidity and Mortality of Patients with Epilepsy.” Since 2006 he worked as a resident and since 2012 as a senior physician at the Epilepsy Center Hessen of the University Hospital Marburg in Germany. Since 2015 he has served as lead consultant and head of the Working Group on Health Economics and Outcome Research in Epilepsy at the Epilepsy Center Frankfurt Rhine-Main of the Goethe University Frankfurt. Since 2017 Dr. Strzelczyk has been a member of the executive board of the German ILAE chapter and serves as an editor of the Austrian, German, and Swiss epilepsy journal, “Clinical Epileptology “. Since 2015 he has served as a member of the executive board of the Austrian, German, and Swiss Working Group on Epilepsy Surgery, and as senior author of the Austrian, German, and Swiss quality guidelines for epilepsy surgery.

Dr. Bethany Thomas is an Epilepsy Nurse Practitioner and the Lead NP Clinical Coordinator for the Department of Neurology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Thomas earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree (along with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in nursing) from Thomas Jefferson University.

Dr. Thomas has given several presentations at national scientific conferences on the treatment and care of pediatric and adult patients with epilepsy. She is the recipient of multiple Penn CARES grants (2015, 2016, 2018), the Miriam M. Powell Scholarship (2019), and the Barbara Todd Leadership Award (2022). She is a member of several professional societies and committees, including the American Academy of Neurology and the Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners, and is a founding member of the American Epilepsy Society’s Advanced Practice Provider Committee.

Dr. Dixon-Salazar is a neuroscientist, geneticist, and patient advocate. Her desire to get her PhD was inspired by her daughter who developed Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS) at the age of 2. She completed her PhD and postdoctoral work at UC, San Diego, where she studied the mechanisms of brain development and synaptic plasticity, identified genetic causes of rare disorders in children, and researched precision therapeutics in stem cell and animal models of pediatric disease. During her research tenure, and after 16 years of watching daily, unrelenting seizures in her child, she uncovered the driver of her daughter’s illness and identified a novel precision therapy that improved her child’s life.

Dr. Dixon-Salazar left academia after 15 years in the lab with a drive to decrease the amount of time it would take for patients to benefit from lab discoveries in epilepsy precision medicine. She worked as Associate Research Director at CURE Epilepsy helping to move funding forward for novel translational research in genomic medicine for patients with severe forms of pediatric-onset epilepsy. She then transitioned to the Director of Research and Strategy at the Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS) Foundation where she worked directly with patients to access precision therapies and partnered with researchers, clinicians, regulators, policymakers, therapy developers, and other advocacy groups to build a sustainable precision medicine infrastructure for all patients with epilepsy. Currently, Dr. Dixon- Salazar serves as the Executive Director of the LGS Foundation, where the mission is to improve the lives of individuals impacted by LGS through advancing research, awareness, education, and family support

Dr. Samba Reddy is a Regents Professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics and the Director of Texas A&M Institute of Pharmacology and Neurotherapeutics at Texas A&M University School of Medicine. He is a board-certified pharmacist and pharmacologist who is dedicated to developing new treatments for epilepsy and brain disorders. He has received continuous funding from the NIH for 18 years and is the principal lead on several projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Department of Defense (DOD), and other organizations, in fields such as epilepsy, chemical neurotoxicity and brain injury. Dr. Reddy has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of neurotherapeutics, including the discovery of the “neurosteroid replacement therapy” for epilepsy and women’s health. His research has paved the way for the FDA approval of two new neurosteroid medicines for post-partum depression (brexanolone) and refractory epilepsy (ganaxolone). He has published over 225 papers, five popular textbooks, and has mentored over 100 students and postdocs. He is a sought-after expert in his field and has been honored with numerous awards and recognition from prestigious organizations, including being named one of the world’s top 2% of scientists by Stanford University.

Dr. Elaine Wirrell is the Chair and Professor of Child Neurology and Program Director of Child and Adolescent Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She completed medical school at the University of British Columbia and her Pediatric Neurology training at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dr. Wirrell is the past Co-chair of the Nosology and Status Epilepticus Task Force and a member of the Pediatrics Task Force of the International League Against Epilepsy. She serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Epilepsy.com and is on the Medical Advisory Board for the Dravet Syndrome Foundation and the Lennox-Gastaut Foundation.

Dr. Wirrell?s main research interests are in early onset, medically intractable epilepsies including developmental and epileptic encephalopathies and epidemiology and comorbidities of pediatric epilepsy. Additionally, Dr. Wirrell is the recipient of the 2021 Kiffin-Penry Award from the American Epilepsy Society and the 2016 Distinguished Clinician award from Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Angie Golden is a current fellow and past president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). She owns NP Obesity Treatment Clinic in Flagstaff, AZ, where she provides evidence-based obesity treatment. She earned the Obesity Medical Association (OMA) NP/PA Certificate of Advanced Clinical Education and the Specialist Certification of Obesity Professional Education, an internationally recognized certification.

Dr. Golden has a great deal of experience as a consultant in the development of patient education materials; authored a book, Treating Obesity in Primary Care, and several book chapters on obesity management; written several peer-reviewed articles and participated in research; and been interviewed by lay media on obesity treatment. She presents nationally and internationally with an emphasis on obesity, health policy, leadership, and clinical care.

Dr. Stanford is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics who practices and teaches at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/ Harvard Medical School (HMS) as one of the first fellowship-trained obesity medicine physicians worldwide. She is among the most highly cited obesity medicine physician-scientists with over 170 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Stanford received her BS and MPH from Emory University as an MLK Scholar, her MD from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine as a Stoney Scholar, her MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Zuckerman Fellow in the Harvard Center for Public Leadership and her executive MBA as a merit-based scholarship recipient from the Quantic School of Business and Technology. She completed her Obesity Medicine & Nutrition Fellowship at MGH/HMS after completing her internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina. She has served as a health communications fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a behavioral sciences intern at the American Cancer Society. Upon completing her MPH, she received the Gold Congressional Award, the highest honor Congress bestows upon America’s youth.

Dr. Stanford has completed a medicine and media internship at the Discovery Channel. An American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Leadership Award recipient in 2005 and an AMA Paul Ambrose Award for national leadership among resident physicians in 2009, she was selected for the AMA Inspirational Physician Award in 2015. The American College of Physicians (ACP) selected her as the 2013 Joseph E. Johnson Leadership Award recipient, and the Massachusetts ACP selected her for the Young Leadership Award in 2015. She is the 2017 recipient of the HMS Amos Diversity Award and the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) Award for Women’s Health. In 2019, she was selected as the Suffolk District Community Clinician of the Year for the Reducing Health Disparities Award for MMS. She was chosen for The Obesity Society Clinician of the Year in 2020. In 2021, she was awarded the MMS Grant Rodkey Award for her dedication to medical students and the AMA Dr. Edmond and Rima Cabbabe Dedication to the Profession Award, which recognizes a physician who demonstrates active and productive improvement to the profession of medicine through community service, advocacy, leadership, teaching, or philanthropy. She is the 2021 Recipient of the Emory Rollins School of Public Health Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2022, the National Academy of Medicine selected her as a Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence. She was named to the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA).

Dr. Dawn Velligan is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Chief of the Division of Community Recovery, Research and Training, and Henry B. Dielmann Chair at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.  Dr. Velligan’s internationally recognized research program focuses on the development and testing of psychosocial treatments to bypass cognitive and motivation problems in schizophrenia and improve medication follow through and outcomes.   She developed Cognitive Adaptation Training (CAT) a unique treatment system designed to bypass the cognitive problems observed in serious mental illness and improve functional outcomes.  Dr. Velligan has dedicated her career to developing, and delivering state-of-the-art psychosocial treatments to make lives better for those with serious mental illness. Dr. Velligan’s latest work has included the development of a multi-level program targeting administrators, providers, and individuals in treatment to facilitate shared decision making and increase the use of long-acting formulations of antipsychotic medication at the systems level.  Dr. Velligan is author of numerous publications in high impact journals on cognitive and functional impairment and adherence and she has received grant funding from the National Institute of Health, The Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, industry and private foundations.  She frequently serves as a consultant to industry and scientific investigators in the areas of symptom assessment, medication adherence and follow through, cognition and outcomes.

Christoph U. Correll is a Professor of Psychiatry at The Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, New York, and serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, at Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany. Dr. Correll completed his medical studies at the Free University of Berlin in Germany, and Dundee University Medical School in Scotland. He is board certified in general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry, having completed two residencies at The Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York City. Since 1997, he has been working and conducting research in New York, and since 2017 he has been working in Germany.

Dr. Correll focuses on the identification and treatment of youth and adults with severe mental illness, clinical trials, epidemiology, psychopharmacology, meta-analyses, and the interface between physical health and mental health. He has authored or co-authored over 850 journal articles that have been cited more than 68.000 times and received over 40 research awards for his work. In August 2023, his H-index was 136 in Google Scholar. Since 2014, the beginning of this metric, he has been listed every year by Clarivate/Web of Science as one of the “most influential scientific minds” and “top 1% cited scientists in the area of psychiatry” (https://hcr.clarivate.com).

Wendy Chung, MD, PhD, a clinical and molecular geneticist, is the Chief of the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Mary Ellen Avery Professor at Harvard Medical School.  She received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Cornell University, her medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, and her doctorate in genetics from The Rockefeller University.

Dr. Chung directs National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research programs in human genetics of pulmonary hypertension, breast cancer, obesity, diabetes, autism, birth defects—including congenital diaphragmatic hernia—and congenital heart disease. She is a leader in the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomics, and leads the National Organization of Rare Disorders Center of Excellence at Columbia University. She is a recipient of the New York Academy of Medicine Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Biomedical Science and the Rare Impact Award from the National Organization of Rare Disorders, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Physicians.

Rebecca Burke, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor of pediatrics within the divisions of neonatal-perinatal medicine and medical genetics at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey School of Medicine. She received her medical and graduate degrees from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AK. She completed her medical residency in general pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University/ Nemours Children’s Hospital née AI duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE, where she realized her calling in medicine was to care for fragile neonates and children with rare genetic disorders. She then completed a combined neonatology and clinical genetics fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital-Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX.

Dr. Burke is a passionate advocate for children with complex medical conditions and their families. In addition to her neonatology and genetics practices, she participates in undergraduate and graduate medical education with a goal to increase genetic literacy and awareness among all medical specialties. Her clinical interests include exome and genome sequencing in newborns, and prenatal consultation for families with pregnancies complicated by fetal anomalies.

Michelle Fergus is a professional, a sister, a fiancé, and a mom to 3-year-old Michael, who has a rare genetic disorder called hereditary fructose intolerance (HFI). Michelle and her partner, Mick, found themselves in a true S.O.S. situation when their son was hospitalized at 3-months old. His first week in the hospital provided no answers, and the second week produced only guesses, until a doctor suggested genetic testing. If their son had not undergone testing, he would not be with them today—genetic testing saved his life. Since then, they have been educating themselves on everything associated with HFI.

Dr. Neilan received his MD from University College Dublin and MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. He completed internal medicine residency and cardiology training at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin and again at Massachusetts General Hospital. He has also completed extensive training in echocardiography at Massachusetts General Hospital and in cardiac magnetic resonance at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Neilan is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the Director of the Cardio-Oncology Program, and the Co-Director of the Cardiac MR PET CT Program.

Dr. Neilan has had a long-standing clinical and research interest in the cardiovascular care of patients with cancer. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death and disability among cancer survivors and cardiovascular care for patients with cancer requires a tailored approach that is unique for each patient. He is specifically interested in how we can improve on the methods for detection of cardiac toxicity after chemotherapy and radiotherapy and to use that information to determine how we care for patients.

Dr. Kerry Reynolds is an oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She currently serves as the Director of the Severe Immunotherapy Complications (SIC) Service and the Clinical Director for Inpatient Cancer Services at Mass General Cancer Center. She joined the Harvard Medical School faculty in 2014, after completing her residency and chief residency at Massachusetts General and fellowship training in Oncology at Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care.

The SIC Service is the first program of its kind in the country. Every hospitalized patient at Mass General Cancer Center who has received immunotherapy and is suspected to be experiencing an immune-related adverse event (irAE) is seen by one of the Service’s dedicated oncologists, resulting in unparalleled care for this type of toxicity. Under the leadership of Dr. Reynolds, the SIC Service now provides care to a significant number of patients every year and has grown to comprise more than 50 clinicians and researchers across 19 different areas of the hospital, including subspecialists from oncology, cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, and many more relevant disciplines.

In addition to providing clinical care, supervising and educating trainees, and participating in administrative affairs, Dr. Reynolds leverages the work of the SIC Service to conduct research on the severe toxicities associated with immunotherapy. Her ultimate goal is to improve the lives of patients undergoing immunotherapy by uncovering irAE predictors and biomarkers, characterizing the clinical presentations of irAEs, developing best practices for managing irAEs, and elucidating the mechanisms that drive irAEs in order to develop novel therapies. To pursue this goal, she is working with Dr. Alexandra-Chloe Villani to systematically collect blood and tissue samples from patients with irAEs and analyze them using cutting-edge technologies. Dr. Reynolds has also authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and several book chapters, and she was lead editor of Facing Immunotherapy: A Guide for Patients and Their Families.