Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Program Team
Adult Epilepsy
Robert Fisher, MD, PhD
Maslah Saul MD Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Director of Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Program
Robert S. Fisher, MD, PhD is Maslah Saul MD Professor and Director of the Stanford Epilepsy Center and EEG lab. He had research funding or awards from the Klingenstein Foundation, Epilepsy Foundation, CURE, American Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, NIH and NSF. He has published about 230 peer-reviewed articles and 3 books. He has been named every year from 1996 to 2019 in Best Doctors in America. He received the Ambassador Award from the International League Against Epilepsy, the 2005 American Epilepsy Society Service Award and the 2006 Annual Clinical Research Award. Dr. Fisher is Past-President of the American Epilepsy Society, and has served on the Board of the International League Against Epilepsy and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, Epilepsia. He is past Editor-in-Chief of the world’s most visited website about epilepsy, epilepsy.com. Dr. Fisher led the projects to develop a formal definition of who has epilepsy and an update of seizure type classification. His recent research is on new devices to detect and treat seizures. He led the clinical trials on deep brain stimulation for epilepsy and on the next-generation (heart-rate-sensing) vagus nerve stimulation device. Dr. Fisher has additionally won several teaching awards and cares for epilepsy patients in the Stanford Epilepsy Clinics and inpatient epilepsy unit.
Kimford J. Meador, MD
Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Director of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit
Dr. Meador received his MD from the Medical College of Georgia. After an internship at the University of Virginia and service as an officer in the Public Health Corps, he completed a residency in Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia and a fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at the University of Florida. Dr. Meador is currently the Multi-PI on a multicenter NIH investigation on the pregnancy outcomes in women with epilepsy including neurodevelopmental effect of fetal antiepileptic drug exposure. Dr. Meador has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications and has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals.
Jessica Falco Walter, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Dr. Walter received her MD from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. She stayed at Georgetown for her internship in Internal Medicine and then moved to New York City to complete her residency in Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She went on to pursue a Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship at Rush University in Chicago, IL, training in both EEG and EMG. Due to her particular interest in Epilepsy she went on to become the first Epilepsy Fellow at Rush University. Dr. Walter provides clinical care to general neurology patients as well as patients with epilepsy and enjoys teaching residents and medical students. She also has a particular interest in dietary treatments for epilepsy and clinical research.
Kevin Graber, MD
Clinical Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Director of Outpatient Epilepsy Clinic
Dr. Kevin Graber earned his MD from Indiana University in 1992 and completed his training in Neurology & Neurological Sciences at Stanford Medical Center. Dr Graber has earned prestigious research awards and has served on several national committees including the American Epilepsy Society, CURE, and Epilepsy Foundation. As a Clinician Educator, Dr. Graber provides clinical care to patients with epilepsy, and teaches fellows, residents, and medical students. Dr. Graber's research is focused on discovering how brain injuries, such as trauma, lead to epilepsy.
Scheherazade Le, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Dr. Le received her MD from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. She completed her internship in Internal Medicine and residency in Neurology at Stanford. She served as Chief Resident in Neurology and then continued her training as a Neurophysiology fellow at Stanford in both Epilepsy/Electroencephalography (EEG) and Intra-operative Neuromonitoring (IONM). As a Clinician Educator, she is particularly interested in patient education, trainee medical education, tuberous sclerosis and clinical research.
Yi Li, MD, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Dr. Yi Li received her M.D. and Ph.D. from Central South University in China, conducting her Ph.D. research as a visiting graduate student at UCLA. She received two national grants in China to research the role of neurogenesis in animal models of refractory temporal lobe epilepsy. Dr. Li received her residency training from University of Massachusetts Medical School, during which time she received a Safety and Quality Award from the American Academy of Neurology. She then continued her training as an epilepsy clinical and research fellow at Stanford. She is interested in medically refractory epilepsy management, epilepsy clinical research, precision medicine and genetics in epilepsy, and improving quality of patient care.
Martha Morrell, MD
Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Dr. Morrell has focused her career on the treatment of patients with epilepsy, including health issues for women with epilepsy. She attended Stanford Medical School, then completed her residency in Neurology and her fellowship in EEG and epilepsy at University of Pennsylvania. After founding the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, she moved to Columbia University where she was the Caitlin Tynan Doyle Professor of Epilepsy and Director of the Columbia Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. She returned in 2004 and sees patients in the Epilepsy Clinic. She is currently the Chief Medical Officer for NeuroPace, a company focused on brain stimulation for epilepsy.
Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Director of Stanford Program for Intractable Epilepsy
Dr. Parvizi’s clinical training is from Mayo Clinic- Rochester, BIDMC-Harvard University, and UCLA. His major interest is in the study of seizure propagation and treating patients with intractable epilepsy. His special expertise is in detecting the epileptic source in patients with uncontrolled seizures and mapping the brain circuitries that underlie development and spread of seizures. He performs functional brain mapping of the brain during epilepsy surgery evaluations. Dr. Parvizi is also the Director of the Stanford Human Intracranial Cognitive Electrophysiology Program (SHICEP), and is involved in multidisciplinary collaborative research projects with several Stanford principal investigators to understand how different parts of the human brain work and how their function may be broken during seizures.
Babak Razavi, MD, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Dr. Razavi's clinical interests are in medically refractory epilepsies and using high density EEG (electroencephalogram) for better localization of seizure foci. His research areas include using engineering techniques for analyzing EEGs, medical devices for evaluation and treatment of epilepsy, and using seizures as a model for understanding consciousness.
Zahra Sadat-Hossieny, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Dr. Sadat received her MD from The George Washington University School of Medicine. She spent two months during medical school in South America and obtained a certificate in global health. She completed her residency in Neurology at The Ohio State University and Fellowship in Epilepsy at Stanford University. She is passionate about providing cutting-edge, personalized and evidence-based care that is delivered with compassion. Her research focuses on developing therapeutics that optimize cognition and improve outcomes for patients with epilepsy and neurologic diseases.
Instructors
Kurt Qing, MD, PhD
Clinical Instructor/Epilepsy Research Fellow
Kurt earned his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, his medical degree at Indiana University School of Medicine, and his doctorate degree in Neuroengineering at Purdue University, focusing on electrical stimulation and recording in animal models. He then completed Neurology residency at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and an Epilepsy fellowship at Stanford University. He is currently a Clinical Instructor/Epilepsy Research Fellow at Stanford and pursuing an academic career with research interests in neurostimulation and recording as well as devices and implants.
Erica Von Stein, MD
Clinical Instructor/Chief Epilepsy Fellow
Erica graduated summa cum laude with a B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, where she attended on a 4-year full tuition merit scholarship. She earned her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. At Penn she was awarded a Guggenheim Neurosurgery Research Fellowship. She completed her internship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center followed by Neurology residency and Epilepsy fellowship at Stanford. Her research interests broadly include brain-computer interface, surgical epilepsy, network neuroscience, comparative epilepsy.
Adult Epilepsy Fellows
Manveer Dilts-Garcha, MD, MA
Manny graduated from the USF Morsani School of Medicine SELECT MD leadership program and before that completed an undergraduate degree in Biology and a Professional Science Master’s in Stem Cell Research at California State University Sacramento. Manny is passionate about advancing the future of science and medicine, both through academic endeavors as well as through policy. Their accomplishments include research in the field of regenerative medicine, publications in biophotonics, awards for healthcare quality improvement, ongoing engagement at the legislative level to reform health policy and improve resident wellbeing, and serving as a founding member and delegate of the UC Davis Residents Union, CIR. Originally from Vancouver, Canada and the child of immigrant parents who fled religious persecution in their native India, Manny is acutely sensitive to the struggles of underserved communities, and disadvantaged groups and is a strong proponent of universal healthcare for all Americans and for health care reform. In their spare time they enjoy wood working, powerlifting, cooking, photography and spending time with their family. Manny is excited for the next chapter in their academic career as an Epilepsy Fellow at Stanford.
Thomas Hirschauer, MD, PhD
Dr. Thomas Hirschauer earned his B.S. in physics and biology from the University of Dayton. As part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Ohio State University, he then obtained his Ph.D. in neuroscience, studying electrophysiologic techniques to characterize the primate reticulospinal system. He subsequently received his M.D. and was selected for the Excellence in Neurology Research award. He completed an internship at the University of California Irvine and neurology residency at the University of California San Diego. He recently completed a clinical neurophysiology fellowship at Stanford, with a focus on intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring, and has continued his training as an adult epilepsy fellow. His research interests include neurostimulation, computer-aided EEG analysis, brain-computer interfaces, and machine learning.
Tessa B. Johung MD, PhD
Tessa received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and her medical degree at Stanford University. She also earned a PhD in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine from Stanford, using optogenetics to reveal how neuronal activity promotes glioma growth and progression in the lab of Michelle Monje. She completed her internship and neurology residency training at UCSF, where she worked in Anna Molofsky’s lab studying changes in cytokine signaling that might disrupt synapse homeostasis in epilepsy, before returning to Stanford for fellowship. In addition to her clinical interest in the longitudinal and cross-disciplinary aspects of caring for patients with epilepsy, she maintains a research interest in studying seizures and epileptogenesis in the context of synapse plasticity and brain tumors.
Mehraneh Khadjevand, MD, MPH
Mehraneh completed her posdoctral fellowship at Mayo Clinic, MN, where she investigated human memory, and worked on interictal biomarkers of epileptic brain. Afterwards she completed her residency at Tufts medical center, and served as the academic chief resident, and received the Award for Excellence in Medical Student Teaching and the Resident Teaching Award. Her goal is finding a reliable interictal biomarker for guiding epilepsy surgery.
Ryan McGinn, MD, MASc, FRCP(C)
CNP-EEG/Epilepsy Education Chief Fellow
Ryan started his working career as a jazz musician in Toronto, Canada where he performed and taught saxophone, flute and clarinet. He then returned to receive an honours BSc in biological physics with high distinction and a master degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Toronto. His work there involved understanding communication between layers of the human cortex. He then earned his MD from the University of Calgary, and completed his neurology residency at McMaster University, where he served as chief neurology resident. His academic interests include electrophysiological network markers for surgical and neuromodulation outcomes in medically refractory epilepsy.
Spencer Nam, MD
Capt. Nam received an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Stanford University, and his MD from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. As an officer in the US Air Force, he completed residency at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Dedicated to clinical care and teaching, he hopes to eventually open an epilepsy monitoring unit at San Antionio Military Medica Center and influence training of future Air Force neurologists. He also performed as a violin soloist at Carnegie Hall and performed with the US Army Orchestra and with members of the Philadelphia orchestra.
Advanced Practice Providers
Mimi Callanan, RN, MSN, ACNS-BC
Epilepsy Clinical Nurse Specialist
Ms. Callanan has many years experience as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Epilepsy. She has been in this role at Stanford since the Center opened in 1990. She received her undergraduate degree at St Louis University and her graduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a past member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Epilepsy Foundation of America. She is a past President of the Epilepsy Society of San Francisco and was on the Board of Directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California. She is author of several publications pertaining to education of patients and families about epilepsy, and to the impact of epilepsy on life.
Bonnie Pamiroyan, RN, MSN, CFNP
Nurse Practitioner
Bonnie Pamiroyan has been with the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Center since 1994. She received her BSN from Baylor University, and her MSN from Holy Names College. She is a past member of the Board of Directors for the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California. Providing patient care services as a Family Nurse Practitioner to patients with epilepsy, a special focus of her practice has been providing pregnancy and family planning/health management to women with epilepsy.
Tenzin D. Lama, DNP, FNP, CNL, RN
Nurse Practitioner
Tenzin Lama received her DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice) with Family Nurse Practitioner degree from University of San Francisco. She has also received her MSN- CNL (Clinic Nurse Leader) from the same university. Tenzin joined the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Center in 2016 and has been working as a Nurse Practitioner in providing care and coordination of services for patients with Epilepsy.