R&F Bios
Neurology® Resident & Fellow Section Team Members
SECTION EDITOR
Roy E. Strowd, MD
Dr. Roy Strowd, Assistant Professor of Neurology and Oncology, is a neurologist and neuro-oncologist at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. He graduated magna cum laude from Duke University in 2005 and from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in 2009. He completed residency in Neurology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in 2013 where he served as Chief Resident. He pursued fellowship training at Johns Hopkins completing the clinical and research Neuro-oncology Fellowship Program as well as dedicated training in medical education research through a fellowship supported by the American Academy of Neurology's Medical Education Research Training Fellowship. Dr. Strowd has clinical research interests in drug development and response assessment in neuro-oncology as well as medical education interests in exploring optimal approaches for teaching healthcare professionals at multiple levels of training. Dr. Strowd is active in medical education, academic scholarship, and scientific research at both the local and national levels and truly enjoys each opportunity to mentor residents and fellows throughout neurology.
DEPUTY EDITOR
Whitley Aamodt, MD, MPH
Whitley Aamodt is a movement disorders fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She graduated with a degree in neuroscience from the College of William and Mary and completed dual degrees in medicine and public health at the University of Texas School of Medicine at San Antonio. She also completed her adult neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania. She is passionate about global and community health and spent one month of her neurology residency in Tanzania. Her research interests also include health disparities and neuroepidemiology.
Malik Muhammad Adil, MD
Malik Adil is a Neurology Resident at Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans. He received his bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology from Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center and medical degree from Shifa College of Medicine, Pakistan. Prior to Neurology residency, he served as Clinical Research Fellow at Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Center, University of Minnesota, where he engaged in research on stroke. In addition to stroke, he is interested in amyloid angiopathy, cerebral microbleeds, vascular dementia, neurological biomarkers, and developing simple educational tools for teaching neurology to medical students, residents and fellows. He is currently a vascular neurology fellow at NIH.
Shashank Agarwal, MD
Shashank Agarwal is an adult neurology resident at NYU Langone Health – Brooklyn. He received his medical degree from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University in India. Prior to starting his Neurology residency, he worked as a Research Scientist at the Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute for Parkinson and Movement Disorders at NYU Langone Health. During residency, Shashank developed interest particularly in caring for neurovascular and neuro-critical care patients. He is actively engaged in research projects with mechanism of stroke treatments and headache management in subarachnoid hemorrhage patients. Shashank is passionate about medical education and enjoys teaching medical students and residents. Outside of medicine, Shashank loves photography and enjoys cooking and kayaking in his free time.
Mehdi Bouslama, MD
Mehdi Bouslama is an adult neurology resident at Emory University. Originally from Tunisia, he completed medical school at Faculté de Medecine de Tunis (FMT). After graduation, he spent two years working as a clinical research fellow at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta investigating ways to enlarge the scope of stroke endovascular therapies and developing new imaging paradigms and tools to improve stroke care systems, under the mentorship of Dr. Raul Nogueira. His research interests include “big data”, AI and machine learning in neuroimaging. After residency, Mehdi will pursue stroke and neuroendovascular fellowships. In his spare time, He enjoys playing the “oud,” tennis, exploring the Atlanta food scene, and spending time with his wife and son.
Guillermo Delgado-García, MD
Guillermo Delgado-García is a senior neurology resident and MSc student at the Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía in Mexico City. He received his medical degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), Mexico. After graduating medical school, he spent one year at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición, Mexico, as a research assistant. He then completed residency in internal medicine at the University Hospital of the UANL. This year he will start a clinical fellowship in epilepsy and EEG at the University of Calgary in Canada.
Katherine Fu, MD
Katherine Fu is an adult neurology resident at the University of California, Los Angeles. She graduated with degrees in neuroscience and biological sciences from the University of Southern California and obtained her medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Her research interests include investigating neuroimaging biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases. She also has an interest in medical education, having served as a neuroanatomy teaching assistant and neurology clerkship instructor in medical school. She is currently a Senior Director for Camp Neuro, a summer day camp for high school students interested in careers in medicine and neuroscience. Her hobbies include creative writing, shao-lin kung fu, and playing viola and ukulele. After residency, she aims to pursue a fellowship in movement disorders, with a particular interest in deep brain stimulation and neuromodulation.
Emilio R. Garrido Sanabria, MD, PhD
Emilio R Garrido Sanabria is an adult neurology resident at Stony Brook University Hospital, New York. He received his medical degree from the Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de La Habana, Cuba and obtained his PhD in Neurosciences/Neurology from the Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo, Brazil. He then completed post-doctoral training at Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem and at the Anatomy and Neurobiology Department, University of Maryland School of Medicine before becoming a faculty member at the University of Texas at Brownsville where he directed an epilepsy research group. As a neuroscientist and tenured Associate Professor, he secured grant funding from NIH and DoD to investigate basic mechanisms of epilepsy, and published more than 45 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He also had the opportunity to mentor high school students, as well as undergraduate and graduate students. As a neurology resident, he is currently directing the Epilepsy Support Group at Stony Brook and he is actively participating in the “Brain, Mind and Behavior” course for pre-clinical medical students. His academic interests are in the area of epilepsy. Outside medicine he enjoys fishing, kayaking and chess.
Rachel Gottlieb-Smith, MD
Rachel Gottlieb-Smith is a child neurologist at the University of Michigan. She graduated from Harvard College with a concentration in Biochemical Sciences and a secondary concentration in Psychology. She received her MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed her residency in child neurology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Neurology’s Medical Education Research Training Fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year and is pursuing additional training in medical education through the Master of Health Professions Education program at the University of Michigan.
Kwo Wei David Ho, MD, PhD
David Ho is a Pain Medicine fellow at Stanford University. He graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in Chemistry and Physics. He then went on to obtain his MD and PhD through the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the University of Iowa. His PhD was in Genetics, with focus on the genetics of seasonal depression and bipolar disorder. He then completed his neurology residency training at the University of Florida. His current research interests include pain genetics and neuromodulation for chronic pain. Outside of medicine, David enjoys kayaking, cycling and rock climbing.
Robert Hurford, MSc, MRCP (UK)
Robert Hurford is a neurology resident at Cambridge University Hospital, UK. He graduated in medicine from the University of Nottingham in 2011 followed by a master’s in clinical neuroscience at the Institute of Neurology, UCL. He has since pursued joint academic and clinical training, working with several stroke research groups, including in Manchester, Cambridge and Paris. He is currently completing a DPhil (PhD) at the University of Oxford, funded by an Association of British Neurologists’ Clinical Research Training Fellowship. His research interests include clinical imaging, health economics and epidemiology of cerebrovascular disease. Outside work he enjoys long-distance running and learning languages.
Regan Jo Lemley, MD, MS
Regan Lemley is a chief adult neurology resident at Wake Forest School of Medicine. She graduated from Southwestern University with a BS in biology and minor in philosophy, and she obtained a master’s degree in medical sciences prior to attending medical school at Texas Tech SOM. She is passionate about neurology education and curriculum development, and her research interests include exploring the influences of psychosocial factors and hormonal changes on epilepsy. She will be an epilepsy fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital after completion of residency. Her hobbies include distance running, hiking, and embroidery.
Ariel Maia Lyons-Warren MD, PhD
Ariel Lyons-Warren is an instructor in child neurology at Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University with a major in neuroscience and a minor in writing seminars. She then completed the medical scientist training program at Washington University in St. Louis. Her PhD research focused on the role of inhibition in temporal coding and she continues to be interested in how inhibition shapes neural circuits. After medical school she matched into the Basic Neuroscience Research Track in the Child Neurology residency program at Texas Children's. Her clinical interests include medical education, palliative care and sensory processing disorders. Her current research investigates the role of co-transmitting inhibitory interneurons in the olfactory bulb.
Fábio Nascimento, MD
Fábio Nascimento is a neurology resident at Baylor College of Medicine. Originally from Brazil, he completed medical school at the Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) and then spent two years at the University of Toronto working as a research fellow in epilepsy genetics. Subsequently, he moved to Houston, Texas to train as an adult neurologist. After residency, he will pursue a 2-year clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and then begin his career as an academic epileptologist. Outside of neurology, Fábio enjoys listening and dancing to sertanejo (a typical Brazilian music genre), going to the movies, eating lots of sushi, and working out.
Jodie Roberts, MD, MSc
Jodie Roberts is an adult neurology resident at the University of Calgary in Canada. She earned her Master of Science in epidemiology while completing her medical degree at the University of Calgary. She has broad research interests within the field of neuroepidemiology, with emphasis on health outcomes. Outside of medicine, she enjoys cycling, cross-country skiing and hiking in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.
Aaron Rothstein, MD
Aaron Rothstein is a fellow in neurovascular disease at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his neurology residency at the New York University School of Medicine. He writes regularly about medicine for The New Atlantis at http://practicing-medicine.thenewatlantis.com/. In his spare time, Aaron enjoys swing dancing, running, and cycling.
Jeffrey Russ, MD, PhD
Dr. Jeff Russ is a Child Neurology Fellow at the University of California San Francisco. He graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in the Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania. He then entered the Weill Cornell/Sloan Kettering/Rockefeller University Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program, where he earned a PhD in neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Julia Kaltschmidt at Sloan Kettering. He studied how interneuron development is affected by intrinsic transcription factor expression and extrinsic circuit perturbations, such as perinatal stroke. Jeff graduated with his MD and PhD in 2016. He then completed Pediatrics training at the University of California San Francisco, and is currently completing his Child Neurology Fellowship. His research and clinical interests include early neurodevelopment and circuit formation. He has authored multiple research papers, editorials, and essays about the medical training experience. He is highly committed to teaching and mentoring upcoming Neurology and Neuroscience trainees.
Behnam Sabayan, MD, PhD
Behnam Sabayan is an adult neurology resident at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Northwestern University, Chicago. He will start his fellowship in Vascular Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University. Behnam has an established interest in brain aging and in particular the vascular contribution to brain structural and functional integrity. After medical school he received a master of science (MSc) in aging and vitality and his PhD in clinical Neuroscience from Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has been a close collaborator with Neuro-Epidemiology and Population Science lab at NIA/NIH and has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers mainly through multi-disciplinary research projects. Behnam is passionate about medical journalism and evidence based Neurology practice and would like to pursue his academic career in vascular neurology with focus on brain health and cognitive brain aging.
Jens Witsch, MD
Jens Witsch is an adult neurology resident at Yale University. He is originally from Freiburg/Germany and studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg. Before graduating from medical school he engaged in a one year research thesis in electrophysiology at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg investigating in vivo neuronal physiology in an epilepsy mouse model. He then completed neurology residency at the Charité in Berlin under the mentorship of Matthias Endres, Christoph Ploner, and Eric Jüttler, followed by a neurocritical care research fellowship in Jan Claassen’s group at Columbia University. Jens is interested in mechanisms leading to secondary injury as well as prognostication after intracranial hemorrhages.
Alonso G. Zea Vera, MD
Alonso G. Zea Vera is a child neurology resident at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He received his medical degree from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru. His research interests includes neurophysiology, movement disorders and cognitive neuroscience. Outside medicine he enjoys playing soccer and spending time with his dog.