Dell Medical School Pediatric Neuroscience Program
Promoting discovery and innovation in the pediatric neurosciences
Dan Freedman, DO, assistant professor of neurology and director/co-developer of the Psychogenic Nonepileptic Events Clinic, was featured in a recent Dell Med news story. The clinic, housed within the Dell Children’s Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Center, is the only clinic of its kind in Texas and one of a few in the country.
Each year Austin Monthly magazine solicits peer nominations from the Austin area, asking each doctor to nominate up to three physicians in their field whom they would trust with the medical care of their own family. The top-rated physicians are then verified to be in good standing with the appropriate medical boards. A physician or practice cannot pay to be on the list, which includes physicians from over 50 medical fields.
We are pleased that nine physicians from UT Health Austin Pediatric Neurosciences at Dell Children’s are featured in Austin Monthly’s most recent Top Doctors roster. We are honored that these nine are so highly regarded, although we think all our doctors are special.
The Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Center at UT Health Austin Pediatric Neurosciences at Dell Children’s is proud to present its first annual IMPRES Conference in collaboration with Lurie Children’s Hospital and Corewell Health, February 16-18, 2024, at Hotel Van Zandt in downtown Austin, Texas.
IMPRES is designed to provide evidence-based research on pediatric epilepsy surgery as well as highlight collaboration between pediatric epilepsy centers and programs. Workup and process of identifying surgical patients will be discussed, including medical and dietary management.
Visit the event site for CME information, hotel information, and registration and the Dell Med event site for the full agenda. Register now for early bird rates! Student discounts available.
Daniel Freedman, DO, assistant professor of neurology and director of the Psychogenic Nonepileptic Events Clinic, was named vice chair of the Guidelines and Assessment Committee for the American Epilepsy Society. He will serve a three-year term as vice chair and a three-year term as chair.
Dr. Freedman joined our team in 2020 after completing his residency in pediatrics and child neurology and his fellowship in clinical neurophysiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. His clinical interests include neurology education, epilepsy, difficult-to-treat seizures, and psychogenic nonepileptic events. He is passionate about advocacy for neurology and epilepsy patients.
Congratulations, Dr. Freedman!
Dave F. Clarke, MD, professor of neurology and pediatrics at Dell Medical School and holder of the Kozmetsky Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Epilepsy, received the J. Kiffin Penry Award for Excellence in Epilepsy Care by the American Epilepsy Society (AES) at its recent annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. Clarke leads the Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Center in UT Health Austin Pediatric Neurosciences at Dell Children’s.
The J. Kiffin Penry Award is given each year by the AES to honor the late Dr. Penry’s lifelong commitment to improving the care of individuals with epilepsy, promoting epilepsy research, and encouraging scholarly and educational activities and mentorship. Penry was chief of the Clinical Epilepsy Section of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and later associate dean for research at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He also began the still-running, highly regarded Penry Epilepsy MiniFellowship, an immersion program that, in the last four decades, has boosted epilepsy management skills for thousands of practitioners.
Clarke emphasizes medical and surgical management of drug-resistant epilepsy. Additionally, he has long championed efforts to broadly improve epilepsy treatment and reduce disparities in epilepsy care regionally and internationally via outreach programs in Texas, Africa, and the Caribbean island countries.
He is a member of the North American Commission of the International League Against Epilepsy, the Epilepsy Leadership Council Steering Committee, the International Affairs Committee of the Child Neurology Society, and the American Epilepsy Society Advocacy Task Force as well as secretary-treasurer of the National Association of Epilepsy Centers Board. In 2021, Clarke received the Ambassador for Epilepsy Award jointly from the International League Against Epilepsy and the International Bureau for Epilepsy in recognition of his outstanding contributions to furthering the cause of epilepsy internationally.
“Dr. Penry was one of my own mentors,” noted E. Steve Roach, MD, chief of UT Health Austin Pediatric Neurosciences at Dell Children’s, “and I can think of no one who better exemplifies Penry’s passion and commitment to improving epilepsy care than Dave Clarke. He is a truly exceptional individual.”
The Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Center is the only dedicated pediatric epilepsy center in Central Texas. Its expert staff and advanced technology support up-to-date patient- and family-focused medical, dietary, and surgical epilepsy treatments designed to provide the best possible outcomes for children and adolescents with epilepsy.
The Dell Medical School/Dell Children’s Medical Center Psychology Internship program was awarded reaccreditation for 10 years by the American Psychological Association. The internship is housed in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is co-directed by Sasha Jaquez, PhD, Ankita Krishnan, PhD, and pediatric neuropsychologist Amanda Winter-Greenberg, PhD, ABPP, an assistant professor of neurology who supervises the internship program’s neuropsychology rotation.
The accreditation is the highest level awarded by the APA and signifies that the program adheres to the Standards of Accreditation for Health Service Psychology.
Dave Clarke, MD, professor of neurology and pediatrics at Dell Medical School and chief of the Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Program, has been recognized as one of the 2023 Dell Med Visionaries. These clinician-leaders are nominated and selected by their peer leaders for bringing Austin into focus as a premier destination for integrated, patient-centered health care.
Clarke’s impact extends far beyond Texas’s capital city—he is a globally recognized epileptologist who works persistently to improve access to epilepsy care around the world. “The work I do to train epileptologists and advocate for resources in Kenya and the Caribbean looks different, but is actually very similar to the work I do in Texas and with partners across the U.S.,” says Clarke. “It’s thinking outside the box about how we train people and connect them with experts in top-level centers to do consults remotely—and get families the answers they need as fast as possible.”
Congratulations, Dr. Clarke!
John (Jay) Wellons III, MD, MSPH, professor of neurological surgery and pediatrics and chief of pediatric neurological surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, presented at the second annual Timothy M. George, MD, Memorial Lecture Research Symposium: Outcomes in Pediatric Neuroscience at Dell Children’s on November 10. Wellons, a past pediatric neurosurgery mentee of George, discussed the state of fetal surgery for spina bifida after the Management of Myelomeningocele Study. This year’s lectureship was expanded to create a mini symposium with other speakers, including pediatric neuroscience faculty members M. Omar Iqbal, MD; Elizabeth Tyler-Kabara, MD, PhD; and Dave F. Clarke, MD.
Timothy George, MD, was a professor of neurosurgery at Dell Medical School and a beloved pediatric neurosurgeon at Dell Children’s Medical Center when he died unexpectedly at age 59 in 2019. Dr. George graduated from New York University Grossman School of Medicine before completing his neurosurgery residency at Yale University and his pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Northwestern University. He joined the faculty of Duke University in 1996 and in 2006 moved to the then new Dell Children’s Hospital. His research interests included Chiari malformation and the genetic mechanisms of neural tube defects.
Cynthia Austin, PhD, ABPP, assistant professor of neurology and neuropsychologist in the Pediatric Neuropsychology Clinic and the Dell Children’s Traumatic Brain Injury/Concussion Clinic, was appointed chief of the nine-member division of pediatric neuropsychology in October.
Austin earned her master’s in program evaluation and her doctorate in school psychology from The University of Texas at Austin. She completed an internship in pediatric neuropsychology at the University of Minnesota Medical School and a fellowship in pediatric neuropsychology from Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her research interests include parent experience and satisfaction with the neuropsychological assessment process as well as predictors and outcomes of traumatic brain injury.
Congratulations, Dr. Austin!
The second annual Neurofibromatosis Family Day Meeting was held October 28 at Dell Children’s. Co-sponsored by the Dell Children’s Neurofibromatosis Center of Excellence, the pediatric neurosciences program, and the Children’s Tumor Foundation, this meeting allowed patient families affected by NF to learn the latest developments in clinical care and research through presentations and breakout sessions. Pediatric neuroscience presenters included Manikum Moodley, MD, professor of neurology and co-director of the Neurofibromatosis Center of Excellence; clinical research administrator Kendra Koch, PhD; and neurofibromatosis center coordinator Karla Robles-Lopez, MD, PhD.
