The Stanford Movement Disorders Team

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

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.


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.


Gaurav Chattree, MD
Instructor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Chattree is a board-certified neurologist with the Stanford Movement Disorders Center and an Instructor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences. He provides comprehensive care for patients with movement disorders, which includes deep brain stimulation evaluation/programming and botulinum toxin injections.

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Chattree conducts research in the lab of Dr. Mark Schnitzer at Stanford, where he uses optical and genetic techniques in mice to develop new treatments for movement disorders.

Dr. Chattree received his BS in Biomedical Engineering (with a focus in computer science) from the University of Texas at Austin and his MD from The University of Texas Southwestern, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and studied the neural circuits of learning and memory in zebra finch songbirds. He completed his neurology residency at Stanford, where he served as chief resident, followed by a Movement Disorders fellowship at Stanford, where he also served as the chief neurology fellow.


Margaret A. Ferris, MD, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

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.


Junghoon Ha, MD, PhD
Instructor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Ha is a physician-scientist and completed a combined MD-PhD Medical Science Training Program (MSTP) at Virginia Commonwealth University. His PhD research focused on G-protein signaling and electrophysiology underlying neurologic diseases including stroke and Parkinson’s disease. He then completed neurology residency at Virginia Commonwealth University where he received training as an academic neurologist.His current research interest at Stanford is to study the neural circuitry of Parkinson’s disease using optical and multi-channel electrophysiology techniques in mice. His aim is to obtain valuable insights about the sub-second pathophysiology in movement disorders as well as developing new therapies


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. 


Shannon M. Kilgore, MD, FAAN
Clinical Associate Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Kilgore received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.  She completed her residency in Neurology at Stanford, serving as Administrative Chief Resident in her last year.  She stayed at Stanford for fellowships in both Movement Disorders, under the direction of Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart, and also Cerebrovascular disease.

Dr. Kilgore is board-certified in Neurology and specializes in the management of both Movement Disorders and Stroke care at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System.  At the VA, she serves as the Director of Stroke Services and also as the Palo Alto representative of the National VA Parkinson’s Disease Consortium.  As a teacher, she focuses on demonstrating physician to patient/caregiver education and adaptive medical management of the whole patient.

Additionally, Dr. Kilgore cares greatly about pharmaceutical pricing and medication safety and serves as the neurologist on the Medical Advisory Panel to Pharmacy Benefits Management, which determines the formulary for the entire Department of Veterans Affairs.  She also enjoys a long-held interest in education policy.  As the former chair of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Neurology Review Committee, she has participated in determining requirements and assessment models for graduate training programs to use. She also seeks to create quality continuing medical education for practicing neurologists, as a member of the editorial board of the journal Continuum: Lifelong Learning in Neurology and the chair of the American Academy of Neurology’s Program Accreditation Work Group.  Additionally, Dr. Kilgore writes questions for the Neurology initial certification exam for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. 


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.  


Rebecca Miller-Kuhlmann, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Rebecca Miller-Kuhlmann, MD, is a board certified Neurologist and a Clinical Instructor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences. Her clinical interest focus on the diagnosis and treatment of neurologic conditions. She loves clinical medicine and works actively to maintain a wide-breadth of knowledge in order to best treat complex patients with multiple neurologic conditions. She was recognized with the Christine Wijman Humanism in Medicine award in 2017.

As a former public school teacher prior to her medical career, she currently holds an honors certificate in medical education from Stanford and is passionate about medical education. She served as an education chief resident during her training and has been recognized with an Neurology Clerkship Teaching Award and the Fisher's & Dunn Teaching Award for excellence in teaching neurology to Stanford medical students. She deeply enjoys working with medical students and residents both in the classroom and in the clinic.  

Her additional academic interests include mitigation of the epidemic of physician burnout, for which she is a graduate of the American Academy of Neurology's Live Well Lead Well Leadership program and has co-developed and directs a wellness & mentorship program for neurology residents and fellows. She has also completed the Stanford CELT (clinical education leadership training) program for developing skills in quality improvement and enjoys teaching and fostering quality improvement work within the Stanford Neurology Residency.


Jessica Ng, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Ng provides comprehensive care for people with movement disorders. She diagnoses and treats a wide range of movement disorders, including ataxia, atypical parkinsonism, dystonia, essential tremor, Huntington’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. She specializes in assessing patients for minimally invasive treatments, including botulinum toxin therapy, deep brain stimulation (DBS), and MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS).  

Dr. Ng’s research interests include assessing treatment and diagnostic tools for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. She has presented to her peers at international and national meetings, including the International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Epilepsy Society. She is also a passionate clinician educator who has given lectures to medical students, physician assistant students, residents, and community physicians. 


Bianca Palushaj, MD
Instructor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Bianca Palushaj completed her residency at Stanford, where she was recognized with the Neurology Clerkship Teaching Award and was accepted into the Neuroscience Scholars Track. Prior to that, she earned her M.D. from the George Washington University and her B.S. in Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Science from the University of Michigan. Before medical school, she facilitated clinical trials in the Neurosurgery and Neurology departments at Stanford and managed the Parkinson’s Disease research cohort at 23andMe.  Bianca works in the lab of Dr. Ami Bhatt studying the gut microbiome as it relates to neurodegenerative disease. She hopes to bring to fruition microbiome-based biomarkers and therapeutics for Parkinson’s Disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.


Kristen K. Steenerson, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology & Neurological  Sciences

Kristen Steenerson is a board-certified neurologist with fellowship training in otoneurology. Her specific interests include Vestibular Migraine, Benign Paroxysmal Positional vertigo, Ménière's Disease and Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness. Her goal is to work in tandem with Movement Disorders specialists to help address the unmet need in balance disorders through the comprehensive evaluation and care allowed by the Stanford Balance Center, jointly addressing the junction of inner ear and brain disorders.


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.