Parkinson's Foundation Center of Excellence at Stanford

We are proud to be named a Parkinson's Foundation Center of Excellence. Centers of Excellence must demonstrate exemplary multidisciplinary care, with Centers of Excellence playing a vital role in leading the PD field in advancing clinical research. These designations recognize medical centers that excel in utilizing a specialized, multidisciplinary team-based approach to provide the highest level of evidence-based, patient-centered care; demonstrate leadership in professional training; and conduct impactful patient education and community outreach.

Kathleen Poston, MD, MS
Edward F. and Irene Thiele Pimley Professor of Neurology and the Neurological Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery
Director, Stanford Movement Disorders Center
Director, Parkinson's Center Foundation of Excellence at Stanford

Dr. Kathleen Poston is Chief of the Movement Disorders Division in the Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences at Stanford University. She received her Bachelor's of Science in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, her Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering and her MD at Vanderbilt University. She completed her Neurology residency training at UCSF where she was co-chief resident, completed a fellowship in clinical Movement Disorders at Columbia University and post-doctoral research training in Functional Neuroimaging at the Feinstein Institute.  She has been on the Stanford Faculty since 2009 and has been Division Chief since 2021.

Dr. Poston’s research and clinical emphasis is to understand the motor and non-motor impairments, such as dementia, that develop in patients with alpha-synuclein pathology, such as Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and Multiple System Atrophy.  Her lab uses functional and structural imaging biomarkers, along with biological biomarkers, to understand the underlying pathophysiology associated these symptoms. Her research is actively supported by the NIH, the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and other foundations, she has over 70 references currently listed on PubMed. She is a member of the Executive Steering Committee of the Parkinson Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI), is site PI of academic and industry-sponsored clinical trials, and is co-Director of the Stanford Lewy Body Dementia Association Research Center of Excellence. She holds joint appointments in Movement Disorders and Memory Disorders Divisions and is a founding member of the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Sarah Kahn
Nurse Coordinator

Sarah Kahn is a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist, specializing in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of Parkinson’s Disease, Essential tremor, and general movement disorders. Sarah received her bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of Arizona in 2010 and obtained her master’s degree in nursing at UCSF as an Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist in 2015.  She has worked within Stanford Movement Disorder Center since 2015 as a Nurse Coordinator, and more recently as a Clinical Nurse Specialist as she has enjoyed working with our Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor patients.

Neurologists

Helen Bronte-Stewart, MD, MSE
The John E. Cahill Professor, Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Director, Stanford Human Motor Control and Balance Laboratory

Dr. Bronte-Stewart received her bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Physics from the University of York in England, her Master's Degree in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and her MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Following her internship in medicine and residency in neurology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Bronte-Stewart completed post-doctoral fellowships in movement disorders and in single unit electrophysiology and motor control with Dr. Stephen Lisberger, at the University of California in San Francisco. She is board certified in psychiatry and neurology. Her expertise in single neuronal electrophysiology in primates has been transferred to the operating room where she performs the intra-operative microelectrode mapping during deep brain stimulations (DBS) procedures.

Dr. Bronte-Stewart's research goal is to understand how the brain controls movement. She developed computerized technology to measure human movement and currently uses this in conjunction with recordings of neuronal and neural network activity in the brain to correlate brain signals with different movements in Parkinson's Disease, tremor and dystonia. She and her team have discovered that people with Parkinson's Disease may have signature "brain arrhythmias" in the subthalamic nucleus in the brain. These rhythms are reduced by DBS at intensities that improve movement. She and her team are now investigating whether these rhythms are directly associated with abnormal movement and therefore whether that can be used as a biomarker for demand brain pacemakers, similar to demand cardiac pacemakers. They are also investigating whether this abnormal rhythm comes from the cortex and whether this will be another potential site for electrical stimulation to treat movement disorders. Dr. Bronte-Stewart is also very interested in balance and gait disorders and has an active research program in this area.

Dr. Bronte-Stewart has authored or co-authored over 60 articles, abstracts, book chapters and other materials on Parkinson's Disease, deep brain stimulation, and related issues, and has lectured widely on these topics all over North America. Throughout her career she has held many teaching positions, beginning during her undergraduate years with directorships of 2 dance companies. In addition, she has been a principal investigator in several studies of treatments for Parkinson's Disease. Her research has been supported by the generous donations of the Kinetics Foundation, the Vincent Coates Foundation, the Robert and Ruth Halperin Foundation, the John A. Blume Foundation, and the Cahill Family Foundation as well as by the NIH.

Margaret A. Ferris, MD, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor

Margaret Ferris recently joined the Movement Disorders division after completing her residency and fellowship at University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. In her practice she will concentrate on interventional treatments, including Botulinum toxin injection, deep brain stimulation (DBS), and focused ultrasound (FUS). Her research interests are understanding health disparities in and expanding access to these interventional treatments.

Andrea Fuentes, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Fuentes is a board-certified neurologist with the Stanford Movement Disorders Center and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences. She provides comprehensive care for patients with different types of movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonian disorders, essential tremor, ataxia, dystonia, and Huntington’s disease. As part of her clinical practice, she performs deep brain stimulation evaluation and programming and botulinum toxin injections. Her research interests include clinical trials evaluating new treatments for Parkinson’s disease, ataxia and other movement disorders. She is also dedicated to community outreach to raise awareness about Parkinson’s disease and medical education, teaching the next generation of neurologists.

Dr. Fuentes received her bachelor’s degree in Human Biology at Stanford University. She then went on to obtain her medical degree from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and completed her neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania and movement disorders fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Jocelyn Jiao, MD, MS
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Jocelyn Jiao is a neurologist specializing in movement disorders and hospice and palliative medicine. She cares for people living with advanced, chronic neurologic disorders, as well as people living with serious, life-limiting illnesses. Dr. Jiao attended Stanford University for college, completed a Masters of Science in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, and completed medical school at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She then completed her neurology residency at the University of Southern California, movement disorders fellowship at Oregon Health and Science University / Portland VA Healthcare System, and hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her academic and clinical interests center upon the development and promotion of neuropalliative care for people living with chronic neurological disorders. 

Maya Katz, MD
Clinical Associate Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Maya Katz specializes in treating patients with Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dystonia and other movement disorders. She is dedicated to taking a comprehensive approach to well-being and to understanding what matters most to her patients and their families. She is a pioneer of integrating palliative care into the treatment of advanced movement disorders; this interdisciplinary approach addresses the physical, psychosocial, spiritual and practical distress caused by serious illness, and has been shown to significantly improve quality of life in people with Parkinson's disease and related disorders.  

In addition, Dr. Katz is passionate about improving access to neurological care in under-resourced areas. In medical school, she co-founded the Weill Cornell Community Clinic, a free clinic for uninsured and underinsured patients in New York City. As a founding member of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society Telemedicine Task Force, she co-founded the Asynchronous Consultation for Movement Disorders (ACMD) program, whose mission is to provide movement disorder specialty consultation services to providers in under-resourced areas of the world.

Dr. Katz received her Medical Degree from Cornell University. She completed her residency in Neurology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where she was appointed Chief Resident during her fourth year of residency. She then completed her Movement Disorders Fellowship at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center. 

J. William Langston, MD
Clinical Professor, Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. J. William Langston originally gained national and international recognition when he discovered the cause of parkinsonism in a group of young heroin addicts in Northern California. The chemical causing their parkinsonism was a contaminate known as MPTP. This discovery has had a major impact on research that continues to this day. Dr. Langston has published nearly 400 scientific papers on PD, and has received numerous national awards for his work, including the Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson’s Research awarded by the Michael J Fox Foundation, and most recently the Van Andel Award for Outstanding Achievements in Parkinson’s disease Research. He is currently the Associate director of Stanford Udall Center, Department of Pathology, Stanford University Medical School where brings his experience and in depth understanding of PD to virtually all aspects of the program, with a focus on how the rapidly changing concepts of the disease are affecting virtually all areas of research, from the clinic to laboratory.

William J. Marks, Jr., MD, MS-HCM
Adjunct Clinical Professor,
Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Marks received an Honors Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Marquette University and his Medical Degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his neurology residency and fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Marks also holds a Master of Science in Health Care Management degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Marks is Board Certified in Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology.  Prior to joining the Stanford Faculty, he served as Professor of Neurology at UCSF. His clinical and research interests include movement disorders, epilepsy, neuromodulation, health technology, and health care policy.

Dr. Marks also serves as Head of Clinical Neurology at Verily Life Sciences, formerly Google Life Sciences—a translational research and engineering organization focused on improving healthcare by applying scientific and technological advances to significant problems in health and biology. At Verily, Dr. Marks is responsible for developing and implementing strategies and initiatives that will advance the understanding of neurological disorders to ultimately improve patient outcomes.  

Laurice Yang, MD, MHA
Clinical Associate Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Laurice Yang received her bachelor’s degree in Molecular Cell Biology at the University of California in Berkeley.  Subsequently, she earned a master’s degree in Health Administration at the University of Southern California where she received the high honor as a Dean Merit Scholar.  She went on to obtain her medical degree from the University of Vermont and completed her neurology residency at the University of Southern California where she was appointed Neuroscience Chief Resident and spent the year revamping the entire medical student/resident education curriculum.  She completed her clinical training as a movement disorders fellow at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Dr. Laurice Yang is a board certified neurologist, specializing in the diagnosis of movement disorders including Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonian disorders, Essential Tremor, and Huntington’s disease.  

Dr. Yang also has a background in healthcare administration and had interned in marketing and HR at several community hospitals before starting her medical degree.  She is currently Associate Physician Improvement Leader, the Assistant Clinic Chief and the Associate Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs in the Department of Neurology.  Dr. Yang is also passionate about quality improvement education. She is currently the Co-Executive Director of CELT (Clinical Effectiveness Leadership Training Program) at Stanford which is a leadership and quality improvement course that has graduated over 2000 participants since its inception in 2014.  She also has been teaching quality improvement at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) where she was an invited speaker in 2022 and 2023 to discuss quality improvement methodology and leadership skills.  She is also part of the AAN Quality Measures Subcommittee where she is involved in creating national guidelines for both inpatient and outpatient neurology. 

Hengameh Zahed, MD, PhD

Dr. Zahed is a board-certified, fellowship-trained neurologist with the Stanford Medicine Movement Disorders Center and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences. She diagnoses and treats a wide range of movement disorders including Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia, and ataxia. She creates a personalized treatment plan for each of her patients utilizing a variety of treatment options including pharmacological and non-pharmacological options, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) treatment for Parkinson's disease and tremor, and botulinum toxin injections for movement disorders and spasticity.

Dr. Zahed received her MD and PhD in Biomedical Sciences from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she subsequently also completed her Neurology residency and fellowship in Movement disorders. Dr. Zahed’s research interests include understanding the genetic and electrophysiological underpinnings of movement disorders, and investigating applications of wearable technologies to monitor symptoms and improve quality of life in patients with movement disorders. She also participates in clinical trials of new therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.