The Stanford Stroke Center Team

Vascular Neurologists/Neurointensivists

Gregory W. Albers, MD
Director, Stanford Stroke Center
Coyote Foundation Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Gregory W. Albers is the Director of the Stanford Stroke Center, a position he has held since co-founding the center in 1992. Under his guidance, the Stroke Center has trained more than 40 clinical stroke specialists; many of these individuals are directing stroke centers at academic institutions throughout the world. Dr. Albers’ primary research focus is the diagnosis, management, and prevention of ischemic stroke.  Dr. Albers was instrumental in the development a medical imaging platform called RAPID that allows physicians to identify stroke patients who have salvageable brain tissue. RAPID was used to select patients for enrollment in the EXTEND,  EXTEND-IA, SWIFT PRIME, DEFUSE 3 and DAWN studies. These studies, which have all been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, led to landmark changes in both intravenous and endovascular stroke therapy- substantially more stroke patients can now be successfully treated. 

Dr. Albers completed his medical training with a neurology residency and cerebrovascular disease fellowship at Stanford. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1989, and the following year won the Lysia Forno Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2011, Dr. Albers received the American Heart Association’s prestigious David G. Sherman Award for Outstanding Contributions to Stroke Research. He has been named among the “Best Medical Specialists in North America - Cerebrovascular Disease” and the “Country’s Best Heart and Stroke Doctors” in national surveys of physicians and department chairs. Dr. Albers has authored more than 400 articles on topics related to cerebrovascular disease in peer-reviewed journals.


Marion S. Buckwalter, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, and Neurosurgery

Dr. Buckwalter joined the Stroke Center in 2002 after her fellowship training at University of California San Francisco. Specialty trained in both neurocritical care and stroke, she oversees the care of patients who are neurologically critically ill. She also maintains a basic science laboratory at Stanford. Her lab focuses on how inflammatory responses after brain injury affect neurological recovery. In the United States, there are 4 million people currently living with the effects of stroke, and another 4.3 million living with the effects of traumatic brain injury. Of the people who have had a stroke, many are disabled to the degree that they cannot work, and a significant proportion are unable to walk, feed themselves, or communicate with their families the way they could prior to their stroke. Despite this very high number of people who are suffering, there is a large knowledge gap regarding the mechanisms by which neurological recovery occurs, and not a single FDA-approved therapy available to help people recover. There is reason to think that such a therapy might be obtainable - we know that some people, especially younger ones, experience significant recovery after stroke. Animal studies, almost entirely done in young animals, also demonstrate significant recovery after neurological injury. Dr. Buckwalter's goal is thus to better understand the mechanisms that contribute to recovery in the young, and how they are influenced by inflammatory responses. With better knowledge of these responses, she hopes to be able to develop new therapies that will help people recover better from stroke and other brain injuries.


Anna Finley Caulfield, MD
Clinical Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Finley Caulfield joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2004 from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She is specialty-trained both in stroke and neurocritical care. She cares for acute stroke patients and other neurologically critical ill patients in the intensive care unit. Currently, her research interests include hypothermia after cardiac arrest and comparing health care provider's predications of future neurological function in neurologically critical ill patients to their 6-month outcome.


Rachelle Dugue, MD, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Dugue is a board-certified neurologist and fellowship trained vascular neurologist. She completed her M.D. and Ph.D in Neuroscience at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, followed by neurology residency at Columbia University Medical Center, New York Presbyterian with distinctions in research, patient care, and medical education, including the Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award. She then completed vascular neurology fellowship at Stanford and joined the Neurohospitalist Division in 2023.

Dr. Dugue is passionate about health equity, mentorship and education within neurology.  She is dedicated to improving inclusion and diversity in medical education and clinical trials. She has published in numerous journals on topics ranging from neuroinfectious disease to ischemic stroke and traumatic brain injury, with the goal of advancing our understanding and treatment of acute neurologic diseases.


Paul George, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. George joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2012 to complete his Vascular Neurology fellowship and has remained as an Assistant Professor.  His clinical and research interests are centered on acute stroke and stroke recovery.  He cares for hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings.  His research focuses on the application of novel biotechnologies to improve healing after stroke. Currently, limited treatment options are available for stroke patients outside of the acute timeframe. His lab works on combining stem cell therapeutics and novel polymers to enhance and improve stroke recovery. His work also utilizes biomedical methods to better understand the mechanisms of neural repair after injury.


Karen Hirsch, MD
Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Program Director, Neurocritical Care

Dr. Karen G. Hirsch joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2012 as an Assistant Professor after completing neurology residency at the Johns Hopkins University and fellowship in neurocritical care at the University of California, San Francisco. She cares for critically ill patients with neurologic disorders in the intensive care unit and for patients with cerebrovascular disease in the inpatient stroke unit. Dr. Hirsch’s research focuses on novel imaging techniques such as functional brain imaging in patients with cardiac arrest and traumatic brain injury. She also studies methods of non-invasive measurement of cerebral blood flow, oxygenation, and cerebrovascular autoregulation and how these parameters might be targeted to improve outcome in patients with neurologic injury. In the outpatient clinic, she sees patients with head injury, stroke and other neurovascular diseases in addition to patients who have been discharged from the neurological intensive care unit.


Laurel Jakubowski, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated), Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Jakubowski is a board-certified neurologist and vascular neurologist who completed adult neurology residency and vascular neurology fellowship at Stanford. She is an affiliate faculty member at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) and Co-director of the SCVMC stroke program and Santa Clara County Neurovascular Network where she treats patients in the ICU, inpatient and outpatient settings along with teaching neurology trainees. She is interested in stroke systems of care and extending access to advanced stroke therapies and neurocritical care to underserved and understudied patient populations. 


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 Cerebrovascular Disease, under the direction of Dr. Greg Albers, and also Movement Disorders.

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.


Hannah Louse Kirsch, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Kirsch joined Stanford University in 2020 after residency at the University of California, San Francisco and fellowship at New York Presbyterian Columbia and Cornell Hospitals. She cares for neurologically critically ill patients in the intensive care unit and for neurology inpatients at Stanford Healthcare Valley Care Hospital. Her research interests include how best to teach and evaluate palliative care skills in neurology trainees, and how to evaluate and reduce moral distress in neurointensive care physicians. 


Liron Kraler, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Lironn Kraler, MD is a General Neurologist with subspecialty training in Vascular Neurology. She works as part of the inpatient Stroke Neurology team at Stanford Hospital providing complex care for patients with neurovascular emergencies. She also cares for patients in the outpatient stroke clinic and resident continuity clinic. In addition, Dr Kraler is the Associate Program Director for the Vascular Neurology Fellowship at Stanford.

Before joining the faculty at Stanford, Dr Kraler attended medical school at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She completed her residency training at Stanford Hospital where she served as chief resident, followed by her Vascular Neurology fellowship training at Stanford. She then completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Stanford University’s Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC) focusing on the high cost of care in US Hospitals. Dr Kraler’s interests are in medical education and value-improvement in neurology and stroke care. 


Prashanth Krishnamohan, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Medical Director of Neurology, Stanford Health Care ValleyCare

Dr. Krishnamohan joined the Stanford Stroke Center as a Fellow in Neurocritical Care and Stroke in 2015 after completing an Internal Medicine residency in India and Neurology residency at the University of Kentucky. His clinical focus is on caring for patients with neurological illnesses in the intensive care unit. His research interest focuses on identifying predictors of brain injury severity after cardiac arrest. He is also the Medical Director of Neurology at Stanford Healthcare ValleyCare hospital where he is involved in building and expanding the Neurology program and also cares for hospitalized patients with acute strokes and other neurological diseases.


Maarten Lansberg, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Lansberg, who first joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 1997, completed his neurology training at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and his neurovascular fellowship at Stanford.  Following his fellowship, he stayed at Stanford as a faculty member.  Dr Lansberg treats stroke patients at Stanford Hospital and Clinics and teaches medical students, neurology residents and stroke fellows at Stanford University School of Medicine.  His research interest is in the design and conduct of clinical trials to test new methods for diagnosing and treating stroke patients.  He has been an investigator on dozens of stroke trials.  The primary focus of his research has been the use of modern imaging techniques for the evaluation of acute stroke. These techniques include diffusion-weighted MRI, perfusion-weighted MRI and CT perfusion.  Dr. Lansberg is currently leading a National Institutes of Health funded multicenter clinical trial investigating the role of CT Perfusion in identifying patients who are most likely to benefit from stroke therapies.  He is also the lead investigator on several stroke recovery trials.


Sarah Lee, MD
Clinical Associate Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Lee joined the Stanford Stroke Center as Clinical Assistant Professor in 2016, after completing a pediatric neurology residency and vascular neurology fellowship, both at Stanford.  Dr. Lee is board-certified in child neurology as well as vascular neurology, and attends on both the adult stroke service and the pediatric neurology service.  She directs the Pediatric Stroke Program at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and serves as associate director of the Young Adult Stroke Program at Stanford.  She is also helping develop the telestroke program with the Stanford Stroke Center.  Her primary clinical and research focus involves optimizing diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation for pediatric and young adult stroke patients.  Additional areas of interest include stroke in children with cardiac disease, hypercoagulable states, and inflammatory and non-inflammatory vasculopathies.


Christina Mijalski Sells, MD, MPH
Clinical Associate Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Christina Mijalski Sells joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2016 and directs the Stanford Telestroke Program.  Following her neurology residency at Brown University,  she completed the Partners Vascular Neurology fellowship at Harvard Medical School.  She also holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.  Currently, her clinical and research interests include telemedicine, stroke in women, and healthcare delivery systems.  Under Dr. Mijalski Sells’ leadership, the Stanford telestroke program will extend the delivery of acute stroke care throughout the Bay Area.


Lucia Rivera Lara, MD
Clinical Associate Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

After completing her fellowship training in Neurosciences Critical Care, Dr. Lucia Rivera Lara joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in October of 2014. There she worked as an instructor and later as an Assistant Professor in the neurocritical care unit and Neurology inpatient and consult service. Dr. Rivera Lara graduated medical school cum laude from the University of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in 2006. She did her residency in Neurology at the University of Massachusetts from 2009 through 2012 and then completed a fellowship in Neurosciences Critical Care at Johns Hopkins in 2014. Dr. Rivera Lara received a Research award from the American Academy of Neurology/American Brain Foundation in 2014. She earned her Master’s in Public Health in 2017 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Currently, her research focuses on developing tools to target the optimal cerebral blood flow in patients with acute brain injury and coma.  She studies cerebral autoregulation and brain multimodality monitoring to prevent secondary injury which might improve outcome of patients with acute brain injury. 


Neil Schwartz, MD, PhD
Clinical Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Schwartz joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2004 as a Fellow in Vascular Neurology and has remained on as Faculty since 2007. Currently, his primary focus is the care of patients with cerebrovascular disease in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. He has expertise in caring for patient with both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. He has a particular interest and expertise in cervical artery dissection and non-atherosclerotic vasculopathies, and serves as the Director of the Young Stroke Program at Stanford. Dr Schwartz is a national leader in neurological education and is the Vice Chair (Education), as well as the Associate Program Director for the Stanford Neurology Residency Program. He also serves as the Medical Director of inpatient Neurology for Stanford Health Care.


Zachary David Threlkeld, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Threlkeld cares for critically ill patients with acute neurologic illness, including traumatic brain injury, stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and epilepsy. He completed his residency training in neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, and joined the Stanford Neurocritical Care program after completing fellowship training in neurocritical care at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has a particular clinical and research interest in traumatic brain injury. His research uses advanced imaging modalities like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to better understand disorders of consciousness.


Chitra Venkatasubramanian MBBS, MD, MSc, FNCS
Division of Stroke and Neurocritical Care
Clinical Professor, Department of Neurology and (by courtesy) Neurosurgery
Associate Chair, Faculty Affairs
Chair of CE A & P committee
Department of Neurology

Dr. Venkatasubramanian (“Venkat”) is a board certified neurologist, vascular neurologist and neurointensivist who joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2005 as a Fellow after completing successive residency training in internal medicine in India and neurology at Stanford University Medical Center. She also holds a Masters degree in Clinical Trials from LSHTM, University of London and is a board certified neurosonologist with accreditation from the American Board of Neurosonology. She has been on faculty since 2007. 

Her primary clinical focus is the comprehensive care of critically ill patients in the neurology intensive care unit, neurological consultations for other critically ill patients admitted to the various intensive care units at Stanford and for patients with acute stroke and TIA in the inpatient stroke unit. In addition, she sees patients with stroke and neurovascular diseases in her stroke clinic and patients discharged from the neurological ICU for follow up in her outcomes clinic.

She is the Stanford principal investigator for several clinical trials in intracerebral hemorrhage and large hemispheric infarction. She spearheads protocol development and quality improvement for Stanford hospital in the areas of emergency anticoagulation reversal, hypothermia after cardiac arrest, brain death and organ donation and pre-hospital neurocritical care for Lifeflight transport. She is keenly interested in the introduction of novel technologies in the ICU for delivering cutting edge neurocritical care.

Her interest in education has translated to overseeing guideline development in neurocritical care for the Neurocritical Care Society and in the past, as Co-Chair of ENLS (emergency neurological life support). Her institutional service lies in representing the department of neurology in the Faculty Senate and as Associate Chair of Faculty affairs for the department. She is deeply committed to enhancing diversity in medical school and serves as a voting member on the Committee on Admissions for Stanford medical school. She was instrumental in redesigning the file review and interview process towards a holistic applicant review and this has contributed to matriculating successive years of a very diverse medical school class with the highest diversity rates over the last decade.


Nirali Vora, MD
Clinical Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Vora provides comprehensive care for all stroke patients, as well as hospitalized adults with acute or undiagnosed neurological conditions. She specializes in treating vascular disorders including TIA, vasculitis, dissection, venous thrombosis, and undetermined or “cryptogenic” causes of stroke. She leads the Stanford Global Health Neurology program, through which she started the first stroke unit in Zimbabwe and gained experience in HIV neurology and other neuro-infectious diseases. Additional research interests include stroke prevention, eliminating disparities in health care, and global neurology education. She joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2013 and is a board-certified neurologist, with additional fellowship training in vascular neurology.


Jack Tzu-Chieh Wang, MD, PhD
Instructor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Jack Wang joined the Stroke Center in 2020 after completing neurocritical care fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center, where he currently cares for critically ill patients with neurological illnesses.  He obtained his MD/PhD at Stanford University School of Medicine and neurology residency training at University of California, Los Angeles. He has particular clinical and research interests in stroke and traumatic brain injury, and currently leads an active translational effort to understand the molecular pathways that mediate axonal degeneration following ischemic and traumatic injuries in the brain and spinal cord, with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets to prevent disease progression and promote functional recovery in patients with these conditions.

Vascular Neurology Fellows

Amine Awad, MBBCh
Vascular Neurology Fellow

Amine attended college at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, followed by medical school at the University of Oxford in the UK. After graduating, he worked as a junior doctor in internal medicine with the National Health Service (NHS) in London, UK, where he also earned Membership in the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP). He subsequently moved to Boston to complete his intern year and residency in adult neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital before joining Stanford. Amine’s research interests focus on systems of care to enhance access to acute stroke interventions. After completing his vascular neurology fellowship at Stanford, he plans to pursue a neuroendovascular surgery fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Outside of work, Amine enjoys spending quality time with his wife, Gyda, traveling, and exploring new local cafes and eateries.

Pressley Chakales, MD
Vascular Neurology Fellow

Dr. Chakales is currently a vascular neurology fellow at Stanford. She is an Atlanta native who completed her undergraduate education as a Dean’s Scholar at University of Georgia, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Psychology. She later earned her M.D. from the University of Central Florida where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. Pressley then completed her neurology residency at Emory University. Her research interests include stroke prevention and quality improvement of stroke systems of care. In her free time, she loves listening to music and going to shows, riding horses, and exploring the outdoors. 

Roberto Chulluncuy-Rivas, MD
Vascular Neurology Fellow

Dr. Roberto Chulluncuy-Rivas is a Neurologist originally from Peru. He earned his medical degree from Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Lima-Peru, and subsequently completed his Neurology residency at the University of Cincinnati.

Prior to his residency, he pursued his interest in Vascular Neurology through stroke rotations at the University of Miami and UCLA. During his residency at the University of Cincinnati, he was honored with induction into the Gold Humanism Honor Society and received the prestigious Arnold P. Gold Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award.

Currently, Dr. Chulluncuy-Rivas is advancing his expertise in Vascular Neurology/Stroke as a Vascular Fellow at Stanford University.

Gregory J. Wong, MD
Vascular Neurology Fellow

Greg was born and raised in the Bay Area. He first became interested in stroke as an undergraduate student, and after college he stayed at UCLA as a clinical research associate with Sidney Starkman and Jeff Saver. He then completed his medical school and intern year training at Washington University in St. Louis before returning home to the Bay for Neurology residency at Stanford where he also served as a chief resident. Greg enjoys clinical research in vascular and interventional neurology and has published on ​MRI detection of distal emboli post-thrombectomy, feasibility of prehospital and acute concurrent clinical trial enrollment, and increasing awareness for interventional neurology training. He is passionate about educating his fellow medical students and residents. After his vascular neurology fellowship, he will complete neurointerventional radiology fellowship at UCLA. In his free time Greg loves rock climbing, exploring new food with friends, and spending time with his family in the area.

 

 

Pediatric Neurologists

Sarah Lee, MD
Clinical Associate Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Lee joined the Stanford Stroke Center as Clinical Assistant Professor in 2016, after completing a pediatric neurology residency and vascular neurology fellowship, both at Stanford.  Dr. Lee is board-certified in child neurology as well as vascular neurology, and attends on both the adult stroke service and the pediatric neurology service.  She directs the Pediatric Stroke Program at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and serves as associate director of the Young Adult Stroke Program at Stanford.  She is also helping develop the telestroke program with the Stanford Stroke Center.  Her primary clinical and research focus involves optimizing diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation for pediatric and young adult stroke patients.  Additional areas of interest include stroke in children with cardiac disease, hypercoagulable states, and inflammatory and non-inflammatory vasculopathies.

Vascular Neurosurgeons

Steven Chang, MD
Professor of Neurosurgery

Dr Chang completed a cerebrovascular surgery fellowship at Stanford and has been recognized with numerous clinical research awards. He has published extensively on the use of radiosurgery for treatment of arteriovenous malformations and cavernous malformations, multi-modality treatments for arteriovenous malformations, and surgical treatment of intracranial aneurysms. Dr. Chang is also the Director of the Cyberknife Stereotactic Radiosurgery Program at Stanford.


Robert Dodd, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiology

Dr. Dodd received his medical degree from the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he also earned a PhD in Neurosciences from the Department of Neurobiology. His neurosurgery training also took place at Stanford, where he recently completed an endovascular fellowship. His research interests have been in cerebral blood vessel reactivity and stroke. Dr. Dodd's clinical interests include endovascular and microsurgical treatment of intracranial aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations; percutaneous and surgical interventions for both extracranial and intracranial carotid artery occlusive disease; and minimally invasive neurosurgery though the use of neuroendoscopy and keyhole approaches.


Gary K. Steinberg, MD, PhD
Co-Director, Stanford Stroke Center
Bernard and Ronni Lacroute-William Randolph Hearst Professor of Neurosurgery and the Neurosciences

A founding director of the Stanford Stroke Center, Dr. Steinberg has practiced medicine at Stanford for more than 25 years. He has pioneered stereotactic microsurgical techniques to repair intracranial vascular malformations and certain aneurysms that were previously considered untreatable. He has also refined revascularization techniques for patients with cerebrovascular occlusions, as well as moyamoya disease. Dr. Steinberg is currently investigating an innovative approach to improve stroke recovery by transplanting neural cells into damaged brain tissue.

Interventional Neuroradiologists

Huy M. Do, MD
Professor of Radiology and Neurosurgery
Division of Neuroimaging and Neurointervention

Dr. Do has been on faculty at Stanford University Medical Center and Stanford Stroke Center for two decades.  He has been involved in multiple clinical stroke trials and has expertise in endovascular treatment of acute stroke using state of the art medical devices such as clot removal devices, clot lysis agents and neuroprotective medications; and advanced neuroimaging technologies for diagnosis and guidance of treatment pathways. Dr. Do's current research focuses on developing techniques and technology for better and safer treatment of ischemic strokes, hemorrhagic neurovascular diseases (cerebral aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation, dural arteriovenous malformation), head and neck and ocular tumors, head and neck vascular malformations and anomalies, painful vertebral compression fractures from osteoporosis or tumor, and craniofacial pain syndromes such as trigeminal neuralgia.


Robert Dodd, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiology

Dr. Dodd received his medical degree from the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he also earned a PhD in Neurosciences from the Department of Neurobiology. His neurosurgery training also took place at Stanford, where he recently completed an endovascular fellowship. His research interests have been in cerebral blood vessel reactivity and stroke. Dr. Dodd's clinical interests include endovascular and microsurgical treatment of intracranial aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations; percutaneous and surgical interventions for both extracranial and intracranial carotid artery occlusive disease; and minimally invasive neurosurgery though the use of neuroendoscopy and keyhole approaches.


Jeremy J. Heit, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Radiology and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery
Neurointerventional Radiologist, Stanford University Hospital
Diagnostic Neuroradiologist, Stanford University Hospital

Dr. Heit is a neurointerventional surgeon who performs minimally invasive, image-guided procedures in the brain, spine, and neck. The procedures include diagnostic cerebral angiography, endovascular stroke triage and therapy, cerebral aneurysm treatment, cerebral vasospasm treatment, cerebral angioplasty, dural arteriovenous fistula diagnosis and treatment, arteriovenous malformation treatment, carotid stent placement, vertebroplasty, spinal and intracranial tumor embolization, percutaneous sclerotherapy for the treatment of vascular malformations, and percutaneous biopsy using ultrasound, CT, and fluoroscopic guidance among other procedures. Dr. Heit is developing novel imaging techniques for the evaluation of patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease, including stroke, vasospasm, and Moyamoya disease.


Benjamin Pulli, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor – Interventional Neuroradiology

Dr. Pulli is a fellowship trained neurointerventional surgeon and clinical assistant professor in the department of radiology. He performs minimally invasive endovascular and percutaneous surgical techniques to treat patients with brain aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, dural arteriovenous fistulas, carotid artery stenosis, acute stroke, chronic subdural hematoma, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, vascular tumors, and chronic back pain. The procedures Dr. Pulli performs include transradial and transfemoral diagnostic cerebral angiography, spinal angiography and embolization, thrombectomy, aneurysm embolization with coil-, stent-assisted coil-, flow diverting stent-, and WEB-device placement, brain arteriovenous malformation embolization, dural arteriovenous fistula embolization, carotid stenting, venous sinus stenting, middle meningeal artery embolization, percutaneous sclerotherapy, as well as vertebropasty and kyphoplasty. His research focuses on advanced invasive and non-invasive imaging techniques for acute ischemic stroke and other neurovascular diseases. 


Nick Telischak, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Radiology and (by courtesy) Neurosurgery

Dr. Nick Telischak is a neurointerventional surgeon (neurointerventional radiologist) who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of stroke, brain aneurysms, brain arteriovenous malformations, brain and spinal dural arteriovenous fistulae, carotid artery stenosis, vertebral body compression fractures, spinal metastases, axial back pain, and congenital vascular malformations. Dr. Telischak treats all of these conditions using minimally-invasive, image-guided procedures and state-of-the-art technology.

Vascular Surgeons

Jason T. Lee, MD
Professor of Surgery
Director of Endovascular Surgery
Chief, Division of Vascular Surgery

Dr. Lee graduated with honors from the California Institute of Technology in 1994 and completed medical school at the University of California, San Diego in 1998. He completed his general surgery residency at Harbor-University of California, Los Angeles in 2004. During his residency he spent one year working under the tutelage of Dr. Rodney White at the St. John's Cardiovascular Institute testing various endovascular devices in animal models. Dr. Lee completed his vascular surgery fellowship at Stanford University in 2006. He is board certified in vascular surgery.

Dr. Lee has been a Stanford Vascular faculty member since 2006. He currently serves as the Chief of the Divison of Vascular Surgery and Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery at Stanford Medicine. He is the director of endovascular surgery at Stanford Health Care.  He was the residency and fellowship program director from 2011-2020. 

Dr. Lee's research interests include outcomes of catheter-based interventions compared to open surgery, functional outcomes after thoracic outlet decompression, imaging surveillance after endovascular aneurysm repair, and the application of endovascular technologies to thoracic and thoracoabdominal aneurysms.


Ronald L. Dalman, MD
Walter Clifford Chidester and Elsa Rooney Chidester Professor of Surgery 
Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs, Stanford Health Care

Dr. Dalman graduated from the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and the Arts (1981), and School of Medicine in (1984), both with distinction.  He was inducted in Alpha Omega Alpha in 1983. He completed his general surgery residency from University of Washington in 1989. He completed fellowship training in vascular surgery at the Oregon Health Sciences University in 1991. He is certified in both vascular surgery and surgery.

Dr. Dalman has been a Stanford vascular faculty member since 1992. He is currently the  Chidester Professor of Surgery.  He served as Chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery from 2005-2021. He served as section chief of vascular surgery at VA Palo Alto from 1991 to 2005.

Dr. Dalman's research interests include the basic underlying mechanisms responsible for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) disease, as well as novel drug, device and exercise therapies to limit progression of small AAAs. He also has extensive experience investigating novel treatments for occlusive diseases of the lower extremities, including lower extremity limb salvage procedures and the modern management of walking disorders such as intermittent claudication (pain in the legs with exercise that is relieved by rest).


OIiver Aalami, MD
Clinical Professor of Surgery
Vascular Surgeon, VA Palo Alto Health Care System
Director, Biodesign for Digital Health, Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign

Dr. Aalami graduated from Boston University School of Medicine in 1998. He completed his general surgery residency at the University of California, San Francisco-East Bay in 2005. During his residency, he completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University researching transplantation immunology with Dr. Randall Morris and tissue engineering with Dr. Michael Longaker. He subsequently completed his vascular surgery fellowship at Northwestern University in 2007. During his fellowship, he spent one year performing translational research in Dr. Melina Kibbe’s lab evaluating the effects of nitric oxide on neointimal hyperplasia. He is board certified in both Surgery and Vascular Surgery.

Dr. Aalami joined Stanford Vascular Surgery in 2012. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery. He is also a staff surgeon at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS). He serves as the Medical Director of the Vascular Laboratory at the VAPAHCS and is the education site director.

Dr. Aalami’s research interests include the development of minimally invasive vascular surgical devices and techniques, medical information technology and biology of neointimal hyperplasia.


Manuel Garcia-Toca, MD
Clinical Professor of Surgery
Chief, Division of  Vascular Surgery at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC)

Dr. Garcia-Toca earned his medical degree at the Universidad Anahuac in Mexico 1999. He has a master’s degree in Health Policy from Stanford University.

He received his general surgery training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brown University in 2008. He then completed a Vascular Surgery fellowship at Northwestern University in 2010. Dr. Garcia-Toca is board certified in both surgery and vascular surgery.

Dr. Garcia-Toca joined Stanford Vascular Surgery in 2015. He is currently Clinical Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Garcia-Toca had previously served as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Brown University.  Dr. Garcia Toca is a Staff Surgeon at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose.

His research interests include new therapeutic strategies and outcomes for the management of vascular trauma, cerebrovascular diseases, dialysis access, aortic dissection, and aneurysms.


E. John Harris, MD 
Professor of Surgery

Dr. Harris graduated from the St. Louis University School of Medicine in 1985. He completed his general surgery residency (1991) and vascular surgery fellowship (1992) at Oregon Health Sciences University. He is currently board certified in vascular surgery.

Dr. Harris has been a Stanford Vascular faculty member since 1992. He currently is a professor of surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery.

Dr. Harris' research interests include the expanding role of vascular reconstruction in complex Oncologic Surgery, Clinical trials for AAA, TAA, Peripheral Vascular Disease and Carotid Occlusive Disease.


Karthik Kasirajan, MD
Clinical Professor of Surgery

Dr. Kasi graduated from Madras Medical College & Government Hospital 1991. He completed his general surgery residency at the Western Reserve Care System and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society in 1998. He subsequently completed his vascular surgery fellowship at Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 2000.

Dr. Kasi joined the Stanford vascular faculty in 2020 as a Clinical Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Kasi previously was a Professor of Surgery at Emory University Hospital and most recently was the Chief of Surgery of Barstow Community Hospital. He is currently practicing at the Stanford Health Care ValleyCare location.


Nicholas Leeper, MD
Professor of Surgery
Chief, Vascular Medicine/Vascular Surgery
Director, Vascular Surgery Research

Dr. Leeper graduated with honors from the University of Chicago in chemistry (1999) and medicine (2003). He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of California, San Francisco in 2005. He then completed a Clinical Investigator Pathway (CIP) in cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University and served as the chief cardiology fellow in 2007. He completed advanced training in vascular medicine through the NIH K12 program at Stanford University in 2009. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, and Vascular Medicine.

Dr. Leeper joined Stanford Cardiovascular Medicine faculty in 2009 and the Division of Vascular Surgery in 2011. He is currently a  Professor, holding appointments both in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Medicine. Dr. Leeper is the Director of Vascular Surgery Research.

Dr. Leeper performs translational research in vascular biology, and aims to understand the genetic causes of atherosclerosis and aneurysmal disease. His NIH-funded laboratory investigates the molecular biology of inherited genetic variants that promote smooth muscle cell dysfunction and lead to clinical events such as heart attack or aneurysm rupture. Dr. Leeper also is interested in vascular regeneration and performs clinical trials studying methods to grow new blood vessels for those with peripheral artery disease (PAD).

Dr. Leeper focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to these conditions with an emphasis on risk factor management. He serves as an investigator for several early phase clinical trials for patients with PAD, including studies of stem cell therapy for subjects with arterial insufficiency.


Shipra Arya, MD, SM, FACS
Associate Professor of Surgery
Chief, Vascular Section, VA Palo Alto Health Care System

Dr. Ayra received her medical degree from All India Institute of Medical Sciences in 2004. She has a master’s degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health with focus on research methodology and cardiovascular epidemiology. She completed her general surgery residency at Creighton University Medical Center in 2011. She completed her vascular surgery fellowship at University of Michigan in 2013. She is board certified in both surgery and vascular surgery.

Dr. Arya joined the Stanford vascular faculty in 2018 as an associate professor of surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery. She is currently section chief of vascular surgery at VA Palo Alto and maintains a practice at Stanford Health Care. Dr. Arya previously worked as an assistant professor of surgery and of epidemiology at Emory University and director of vascular lab and endovascular therapy at the Atlanta VA Medical Center.  

Her research is focused on improving quality of care and outcomes in older adults undergoing surgery. She recently completed an American Heart Association (AHA) grant on risk prediction of cardiovascular outcomes and limb loss in Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) patients. She is currently funded by the NIH/NIA GEMSSTAR grant studying the impact of frailty on quality of surgical care in PAD and aortic aneurysm patients.


Jennifer Avise, MD, FACS
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery

Dr. Avise earned her BS degree Magna Cum Laude in biology and psychology from the University of Georgia in 2005. She received her medical degree (2009) and completed her general surgery residency (2014) at Emory University School of Medicine. She completed her vascular surgery fellowship from Wake Forest Medical Center in North Carolina in 2016. She is board certified in Surgery. 

She joined Stanford Vascular Surgery in 2016. She is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Avise maintains her practice at Stanford Health Care East Bay locations in Pleasanton and Emeryville, CA.  

Her research interests include improved outcomes through increased patient involvement in medical decision making and personalized healthcare treatment.


Venita Chandra, MD, FACS
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery 
Co-Medical Director of the Stanford Wound Care Center
Vascular Surgery Fellowship Program Director

Dr. Chandra earned her B.S. degree, Summa Cum Laude, in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Minnesota in 1999. She received her medical degree from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society in 2004. Dr. Chandra completed her general surgery residency at Stanford in 2011 and is a graduate of the Stanford Biodesign program. She completed her Stanford Vascular Surgery Fellowship in June 2013. She is board certified in both Surgery and Vascular Surgery.

Dr. Chandra joined Stanford Vascular Surgery in 2013. She is currently a Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery.  She is also the co-director of the Stanford Wound Care Center as well as the Vascular Surgery Residency and Fellowship Associate Program Director.

Dr. Chandra's research interests include women’s vascular health, radiation safety, technology development and treatment optimization for complex open and endovascular treatment of peripheral vascular and aneurysmal disease.


Eri Fukaya, MD, PhD
Clinical Associate Professor
Co-Medical Director of the Stanford Vascular Clinics
Vascular Medicine Fellowship Program Director

Dr. Fukaya received her Ph.D. (2009) and M.D. (1999) from Tokyo Women’s Medical University in Japan, where she also completed her Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery training prior to completing Internal Medicine and Vascular Medicine training in the US. Her postdoctoral research studies were in the areas of evaluating tissue perfusion and viability and vascular imaging.

Dr. Fukaya joined Stanford Vascular Surgery in 2015 and while she sees all Vascular Medicine patients, her expertise is in venous disease and she started the Vascular and Vein Clinic and treats advanced venous disease patients at the Advanced Wound Care Center. She is also the site director for the national FMD Registry. She is currently the fellowship director for the Stanford Vascular Medicine Fellowship Program and maintains an active clinical and didactic teaching role to a multidisciplinary group of residents and fellows at Stanford.

Her research interest includes understanding the genetic underpinnings and pathophysiology of chronic venous disease, working with societal groups to increase vascular disease awareness and access to care and incorporating clinical interventions to increase physical activity and walking in patients with peripheral artery disease utilizing mobile health with information technology.


Michael Sgroi, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery
Vascular Surgery Residency and Fellowship, Associate Program Director

Dr. Sgroi completed his medical degree at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in 2010.  He then completed his general surgery residency at the University of California, Irvine in 2016.  He completed his vascular surgery fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine in 2018.  Dr. Sgroi is board certified in both general surgery and vascular surgery.

Dr. Sgroi joined Stanford Vascular Surgery in 2018.  He is currently Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery.  Dr. Sgroi is a Staff Surgeon at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose.

His research interests include outcomes research using national database systems including VQI. He has interest in the outcomes of aortic disease, peripheral vascular disease, and hemodialysis access. Additionally, he has a special interest in surgical education as well as vascular surgery simulation and its importance in residency training.  

Specialties: open and endovascular management of vascular trauma, complex abdominal aortic aneurysm disease, critical limb ischemia, cerebrovascular disease, and hemodialysis access and maintenance. 


Ehab Sorial, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery

Dr. Sorial graduated from the University of Minya, Faculty of Medicine in Egypt 1994. He completed his general surgery residency from Harbor–UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles and Western Reserve Care system in Youngstown, Ohio in 2005. He completed his fellowship training in vascular surgery at the University of Kentucky in Lexington in 2007. Dr. Sorial is board certified in both Vascular Surgery and General Surgery.

He joined Stanford Vascular Surgery in 2015. He is currently Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Sorial had previously served as an Assistant Professor then as an Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky from 2007 through 2015. Dr. Ehab Sorial is a staff surgeon at the Santa Clara Valley Medical center in San Jose CA.

His research focus is on central venous occlusions in dialysis patients which can be treated percutaneously using the Surfacer device.


Jordan R. Stern, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery

Dr. Stern earned his medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 2008. He completed his general surgery residency at The University of Chicago in 2015, which included a two-year research fellowship in Translational Systems Biology. He then completed his fellowship in vascular and endovascular surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Stern is board certified in both general surgery and vascular surgery.

Dr. Stern joined Stanford Vascular Surgery in 2017 as a Clinical Asssistant Professor of Surgery and was promoted to Clinical Associate Professor in 2021. His primary practice is at Stanford Medicine.

Dr. Stern’s clinical and academic interests are in the treatment of aortic disease. He is involved in the development of novel treatment strategies for complex aortic pathologies, and serves as principal or co-investigator on several device trials. He is also involved in clinical research, examining contemporary practice patterns and outcomes from endovascular and open surgical interventions.


Derek Klarin, MD
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Vascular Surgeon, VA Palo Alto

Dr. Klarin received his medical degree at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He then completed his general surgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA and fellowship in vascular surgery and endovascular therapy at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, Florida.

Dr. Klarin joined the Stanford Vascular Surgery Faculty in 2021.  He is currently Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery.  Dr. Klarin is a Staff Surgeon at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital. 

His research uses genomic approaches to better understand the etiology of atherosclerosis, vascular disease, and their associated risk factors including lipids and thrombosis. The foundation of this work is based on two key insights: 1) vascular disease, including Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), is strongly influenced by inheritance with severe, early-onset disease often clustering in families; 2) differences in DNA sequence variants, both germline and somatic, play a causal role in determining who exhibits such atherosclerotic disease risk. His current use of translational approaches to vascular disease builds on experience and training in genetic analysis of atherosclerosis using bioinformatics and computational-based approaches learned during a post-doctoral fellowship at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.


Elsie Gyang Ross, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor of Surgery Vascular Surgery and Medicine (BMIR)
Stanford Health Care
Vascular Surgeon, VA Palo Alto Health Care System

Dr. Ross is a vascular surgeon who specializes in minimally invasive endovascular as well as complex open procedures for the treatment of vascular disease. She conducts a comprehensive evaluation with each patient to determine the treatment that will bring the least amount of risk with the best outcomes. 

While Dr. Ross works with the entire spectrum of patients, she has particular expertise in stroke prevention using cutting edge, minimally invasive techniques and advanced endovascular treatments of limb ischemia. Examples include TCAR (TransCarotid Artery Revascularization), a newer method of carotid stenting that dramatically decreases peri-procedural stroke risk and can be comfortably performed awake, as well as pedal access for treatment of recurrent and/or difficult vascular stenoses or occlusions.

Minimally invasive carotid procedures—including TCAR, Minimally invasive peripheral


Nazish Sayed, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Cardiovascular Institute

Dr. Sayed earned his MD degree from the University of Mumbai, India and his PhD degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Rutgers New Jersey Medical School) in 2008.  He has a Master’s degree in Molecular Biology from Montclair State University.  He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular and regenerative medicine in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University followed by an Instructor position at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. 

Dr. Sayed joined Stanford vascular faculty in 2021 and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Surgery and The Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. 

Dr. Sayed’s research has focused on the development of novel technologies that drive innovation in regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and drug testing in vascular biology.  He performs translational research in vascular biology and aims to understand the role of the vasculature in the development of cardiac diseases, including those due to inherited genetic variants or environmental insults such as type 2 diabetes or hypertension.  His lab employs the human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to generate patient-specific vascular cells (endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells) as an alternative to animal models providing a human tissue surrogate for research that is scalable and sustainable.  By employing this unique platform, his lab also investigates the role of chemotherapeutic agents (anti-cancer drugs) on the vasculature. Dr. Sayed’s lab has also established an endothelial regeneration program, where they leverage the innate immune system to regenerate endothelial cells from human fibroblasts (skin cells).


Christopher P. Cheng, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Surgery
Director of Vascular Intervention Biomechanics & Engineering Lab

Dr. Cheng earned his B.S.E. degree in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering from Duke University in 1998. He then earned his M.S. (2000) and Ph.D. (2002) in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, focused on cardiovascular biomechanics. Dr. Cheng joined the Vascular Surgery faculty in 2006, when he founded the Stanford Vascular Intervention Biomechanics & Engineering Lab (vibelab.stanford.edu).

In his industry experience, Dr. Cheng has worked at small and large medical device companies, with experience spanning design, manufacturing, preclinical testing, clinical trials, and entrepreneurship.  Currently, Dr. Cheng is President & CEO of Global Science & Technology (gst.com), which focuses on satellite remote sensing for NASA and NOAA, as well as a consulting practice dedicated to helping medical device companies holistically evaluate and improve biomechanical compatibility of cardiovascular implants.  Previously, Dr. Cheng was co-founder and CEO of Kōli, Inc., a start-up developing a catheter-based solution for gallstone disease. 

Dr. Cheng’s academic research has focused on hemodynamics and vascular structure mechanics, and he is considered the preeminent expert in quantifying vascular motion.  He authored the Handbook of Vascular Motion (PROSE Book Award Nominee, https://www.elsevier.com/books/handbook-of-vascular-motion/cheng/978-0-12-815713-8), the first and only book dedicated to how blood vessels move.  Dr. Cheng is also President of the Cardiovascular Implant Durability Inc. (cvidconference.org), a non-profit organization leading the effort to improve durability of medical devices, and is a board member of the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.


Cornelius Olcott, IV, MD 
Professor of Surgery Emeritus


Christopher K. Zarins, MD 
Professor of Surgery Emeritus
Division Chief Emeritus

Research

Basic Research

Katrin Andreasson, MD
Edward F. and Irene Thiele Pimley Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Andreassson is a Professor in the Stanford Neurology Department.  Her laboratory is dedicated to understanding the basic mechanisms by which neurons die in stroke and in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Her research focuses on the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) pathway, which has been found to play a critical role in promoting neuronal death in a number of models of neurological disease.


Marion S. Buckwalter, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, and Neurosurgery

Dr. Buckwalter joined the Stroke Center in 2002 after her fellowship training at University of California San Francisco. Specialty trained in both neurocritical care and stroke, she oversees the care of patients who are neurologically critically ill. She also maintains a basic science laboratory at Stanford. Her lab focuses on how inflammatory responses after brain injury affect neurological recovery. In the United States, there are 4 million people currently living with the effects of stroke, and another 4.3 million living with the effects of traumatic brain injury. Of the people who have had a stroke, many are disabled to the degree that they cannot work, and a significant proportion are unable to walk, feed themselves, or communicate with their families the way they could prior to their stroke. Despite this very high number of people who are suffering, there is a large knowledge gap regarding the mechanisms by which neurological recovery occurs, and not a single FDA-approved therapy available to help people recover. There is reason to think that such a therapy might be obtainable - we know that some people, especially younger ones, experience significant recovery after stroke. Animal studies, almost entirely done in young animals, also demonstrate significant recovery after neurological injury. Dr. Buckwalter's goal is thus to better understand the mechanisms that contribute to recovery in the young, and how they are influenced by inflammatory responses. With better knowledge of these responses, she hopes to be able to develop new therapies that will help people recover better from stroke and other brain injuries.


Paul George, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. George joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2012 to complete his Vascular Neurology fellowship and has remained as an Assistant Professor.  His clinical and research interests are centered on acute stroke and stroke recovery.  He cares for hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings.  His research focuses on the application of novel biotechnologies to improve healing after stroke. Currently, limited treatment options are available for stroke patients outside of the acute timeframe. His lab works on combining stem cell therapeutics and novel polymers to enhance and improve stroke recovery. His work also utilizes biomedical methods to better understand the mechanisms of neural repair after injury.


Paul Nuyujukian, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and of Neurosurgery

Paul Nuyujukian is a physician-engineer who directs the Brain Interfacing Laboratory . He received his MD and PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford and joined the Departments of Bioengineering and Neurosurgery as faculty in 2017. His group focuses on the development of brain-machine interfaces towards applications for neurological conditions such as stroke and epilepsy, spanning both translational preclinical models and human clinical studies.


Theo Palmer, PhD
Professor of Neurosurgery, Emeritus

Dr. Palmer was recruited in 2000 to help develop a neurotransplantation program at Stanford. He has already developed a national reputation for his scientific expertise in stem cell biology and neurogenesis in the central nervous system. Using molecular biology techniques, his laboratory is studying innovative methods of improving neurologic function after stroke or degenerative disease, including enhanced neurogenesis with growth factors and transplantation of different neuronal stem cells.


Gary K. Steinberg, MD, PhD
Bernard and Ronni Lacroute-William Randolph Hearst Professor of Neurosurgery and the Neurosciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Neurology

Dr. Gary Steinberg is the Founder and Co-Director of the Stanford Stroke Center,  Director of the Stanford Moyamoya Center and former Chair of the Stanford University Department of Neurosurgery. As a cerebrovascular and skull base neurosurgeon at Stanford for more than 33 years, he specializes in treating brain aneurysms, moyamoya disease, brain and spinal AVMs and other vascular malformations, carotid artery disease, meningiomas, skull base tumors, stroke, and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. He has pioneered microsurgical and radiosurgical techniques to repair intracranial vascular malformations and certain aneurysms that were previously considered untreatable. He has also refined revascularization techniques for patients with cerebrovascular arterial occlusions, as well as moyamoya disease.

Dr. Steinberg’s lab investigates pathomechanisms of cerebral ischemia and moyamoya disease, develops neuroprotective agents, and employs novel approaches such as stem cell transplantation and optogenetic stimulation to enhance post-stroke functional recovery. He has successfully translated this preclinical work into several stem cell clinical trials for stroke, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury, as well as leading numerous other clinical cerebrovascular trials. 

Clinical Research

Nancy Fischbein, MD
Professor of Radiology - Diagnostic Radiology

Dr. Fischbein earned her medical degree at Harvard Medical School and completed her training in Diagnostic Radiology and her neuroradiology fellowship at the University of California-San Francisco. She is board certified in Diagnostic Radiology and holds a Certificate of Added Qualification in Neuroradiology. Dr. Fischbein's research interests include imaging of brain tumors using advanced MR-based modalities, as well as imaging of processes that affect the skull base and cranial nerves.


Greg Zaharchuk, MD
Professor of Radiology

After finishing a neuroradiology fellowship at UCSF in 2006, Dr. Zaharchuk began his faculty position at Stanford where he has played a key role in several Stroke Center research studies.   His research interests include imaging of cerebral hemodynamics with MR arterial spin labeling  and CT perfusion, noninvasive oxygenation measurement with MRI, simultaneous PET/MRI, and the use of deep learning artificial intelligence methods to improve medical image quality and stroke lesion prediction. 


Michael Mlynash, MD, MS
Senior Scientist

Dr. Mlynash joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2002. In addition to his MD degree, he holds a MS in Computer Science and in Epidemiology (Clinical Track). He also holds US patents in the field of computer-based medical devices. His research interests include automated analysis of medical signals and imaging and statistical analysis of clinical data. Currently, he is involved in studies investigating the role of brain MR imaging for predicting outcome in comatose survivors after cardiac arrest, the role of diffusion and perfusion MRI in decision making for acute stroke therapies, and studying the process of brain swelling after brain hemorrhage.

Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring

S. Charles Cho, MD
Clinical Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Cho is a member of the Intraoperative Monitoring Service at Stanford. His interests are in the neurophysiology and electrical functions of the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. He is currently involved in recognizing reversible ischemia and preventing strokes during surgical and interventional neuroradiology procedures.


Leslie H. Lee, MD
Clinical Professor,  Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Lee is a member of the Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring program. She utilizes neurophysiologic techniques to assess the functional state of the nervous system, with a goal of improving safety and perioperative outcomes across a diversity of surgical procedures.


Jaime R. Lopez, MD
Director, Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring Program
Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and Neurosurgery

Dr. Lopez completed his residency in Neurology and fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology and Neuromuscular Diseases at Stanford University Medical Center. In 1994, Dr. Lopez established the Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring Program at Stanford. The program has expanded to more than 500 cases annually. Dr. Lopez continues to research the use of innovative techniques for monitoring different regions of the nervous system during a variety of neurovascular surgical procedures, endovascular embolizations, and spinal cord and orthopedic surgeries.


Viet Nguyen, MD 
Clinical Associate Professor,  Neurology & Neurological Sciences 

Dr. Nguyen’s practice leverages neurophysiology to improve the care of neurologic patients, including the Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring service, the Stanford Concussion Clinic, and the Spasticity Clinic, which treats patients with spastic paralysis (i.e. from cerebral palsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, etc.), including the use of botulinum toxin injections.  Ongoing research projects include finding correlations between intraoperative neurophysiologic data and post-operative outcomes, and validation of new neuromonitoring techniques.  He presents at research forums and educational courses at professional society meetings nationally and internationally.  He runs the Introduction to Neurology Seminar (NENS206) at the medical school, is a mentor for the Stanford Immersion in Medicine Series (SIMS), and is a preceptor for the Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR).

Neuroanesthesia

Rona Giffard, MD, PhD
Vice-Chair for Research, Department of Anesthesia
Professor of Anesthesia and by courtesy, Neurosurgery

Dr. Giffard works to develop novel treatments to reduce brain vulnerability to stroke. Using gene therapy she is probing the mechanisms of injury and protection to develop treatments to improve outcomes of both surgical patients and others suffering a stroke. She studies the susceptibility of individual brain cell types to target mechanisms that are important in each cell type to provide the best overall protection.


Richard A. Jaffe, MD, PhD
Chief, Neurosurgical Anesthesia
Professor of Anesthesia and Neurosurgery

Dr. Jaffe’s research interests include the development and characterization of electrophysiologic monitoring techniques for the early detection of intraoperative cerebral ischemia. Using these techniques he is also able to study the effects of anesthetics and related drugs on the brain’s sensitivity to transient ischemic events. The results of these studies can be used to improve the anesthetic management of patients undergoing a wide variety of neurosurgical procedures.

Statistician

Scott Hamilton, PhD
Consulting Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Dr. Hamilton joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2001 as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the volunteer faculty. He earned his degree in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina in 1994. His main clinical and research interest is the treatment of acute stroke patients. His research has focused on optimal methods for analysis of clinical outcomes from late phase studies of acute stroke. He has been the primary statistician on several studies examining pharmacologic treatment of acute stroke, and diagnosis using diffusion-weighted MRI, perfusion-weighted MRI and CT perfusion. Dr. Hamilton is currently the primary statistician for several acute stroke related studies, and sits on several Data Safety Monitoring Committees for NIH funded acute stroke studies.

Physical Medicine Rehabilitation

Matthew Smuck, MD
Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery

Dr. Matthew Smuck is the Chief of PM&R, Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Medical Director of Rehabilitation Services for Stanford Healthcare. He has served as Deputy Editor of The Spine Journal, and Co-Editor of the Orthopedics Knowledge Update in Spine, 4th edition. Dr. Smuck is an award-winning researcher and pioneer in the new field of physical performance monitoring. He directs the Wearable Health Lab at Stanford, investigating medical applications of mobile technology to improve musculoskeletal and neurologic disease detection, treatment and prevention. He regularly lectures on his research in the U.S. and abroad. His work has received numerous society and publication awards, including the American Academy of PM&R’s 2014 President’s Citation Award, the PM&R Journal and Foundation for PM&R’s 2015 Best Original Research Award, the 2016 ISSLS Prize, and The Spine Journal’s Outstanding Paper Award in 2013, 2016 & 2017.  

Nurses

Teresa Bell-Stephens, CNRN

Teresa has worked with the Stroke Center since 1990. She has an extensive background in critical care, and her current focus is on coordinating the cerebrovascular surgery program, with a focus on moyamoya disease, vascular malformations and intracranial aneurysms. Teresa is a regular lecturer for Bay Area nurses on various neuroscience nursing topics and has presented many papers at the annual meetings of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN) and the World Federation of Neuroscience Nurses (WFNN). She has published peer reviewed neuroscience nursing articles in various journals.


Selena Mendoza, RN, BSN
Clinical Nurse Coordinator

Selena joined Stanford Hospital & Clinics in July 2015 as a Clinical Nurse Coordinator. Prior to that, she worked in the Stanford inpatient neurology and intermediate intensive care units.

Selena received her Bachelors degree in Science in Nursing. In 2010, She started her nursing career by working with underserved patient populations in an intermediate ICU in the East Bay. Her focus was caring for patients with neurological disorders, stroke, and cardiovascular disease.

Prior to nursing school, Selena worked with the Asian Community; she assisted Cambodian patients who were navigating the US healthcare system. Selena has been in health care for 15 years.


Ana Luisa (Isa) San Pedro, CNRN

Ana Luisa (Isa) San Pedro came to the Stroke Center in November 2012.  She previously worked as a RN for 7 years on G1, the Stanford Neurosurgical Unit.  Isa presently serves as a RN for the patients and Stroke Neurologists in the outpatient setting.  She helps coordinate diagnostics, appointments, and referrals to other services that a patient may need in their post stroke recovery.  Her passion is educating patients on how to prevent a future stroke and maximizing recovery from a stroke that has already occurred.  She is accessible to patients before, during, and  after appointments to help answer questions and coordinate care.


Joli Vavao, MSN, ACNP, CNRN

Joli joined the Neurosurgical team in 2004. She obtained her master's degree as an acute care nurse practitioner from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has worked as a nurse for over 20 years specializing in neurosurgery and stroke neurology. She has received national certification in neuroscience nursing. She plays an active role coordinating the care of cerebrovascular patients in both an inpatient and outpatient setting. She participates in lectures to hospital staff and local health care professionals regarding the care of neuroscience patients.  She also serves as lead APP in the department of neurosurgery.  


Michelle Robinson, MSN, AGACNP-BC, CCRN
Lead Advanced Practice Provider, Neurocritical Care

Michelle Robinson is a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and the co-lead of the Neurocritical Care team at Stanford. She has been with the Neurocritical Care service since 2021 and has over 10 years of prior ICU nursing experience. Throughout her nursing career, she has worked as a bedside nurse, unit educator, and assistant patient care manager. In her current clinical role, she appreciates being able to share in the positive outcomes of her patients and enjoys teaching and mentoring new staff. Additionally, she is a member of the APP'reciate Diversity committee and is passionate about ensuring provider diversity here at Stanford.

Staff

Stephanie Kemp
Program Manager

Stephanie Kemp is the Program Manager for the Stanford Stroke Center. She joined the Stroke Center in 1993 and has extensive experience in regulatory management and FDA guidelines. She oversees the administrative and research staff as well as all clinical trials performed at the Stroke Center.


Valerie Berland
Fellowship Program Coordinator

Valerie Berland is the program coordinator for the Stroke Center’s Vascular Neurology Fellowship Program. She has been overseeing fellowship, residency, and postdoctoral scholar programs for Stanford University since 2010.  Valerie also provides administrative support to Drs. Anna Finley Caulfield, Neil Schwartz, Nirali Vora, and Jack Wang.


Irina Eyngorn
Clinical Research Coordinator

Irina Eyngorn joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2001. She coordinates several ongoing clinical trials at the Stroke Center. Currently, she is involved in studies predicting outcome in comatose survivors after cardiac arrest, using MRI and biomarkers, and assessing the utility of diffusion- and perfusion-weighted MRI and Xenon CT perfusion for the evaluation of acute stroke patients.


Madelleine Garcia
Clinical Research Coordinator

Madelleine Garcia is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Stanford Stroke Center. She has been with the Stroke Center since 1998. She oversees secondary stroke prevention trials and maintains the stroke database which includes all patients seen by the Stroke Center.


Katie Kim
Clinical Research Coordinator

Katie Kim is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Stanford Stroke Center. She has been with the Stroke Center since 2019. She is involved in longitudinal studies that observe changes in cognitive performance and blood over time. Our longitudinal studies hope to create recovery programs for stroke patients in the future.


Leonel Lugo
Clinical Research Coordinator Associate

Leonel Lugo is a clinical research coordinator at the Stanford Stroke Center. He has been with the Stroke Center since 2019. His studies mainly focus on the use of new technology to promote functional recovery post stroke. He is also involved in observational studies that aim to help diagnose and streamline care for acute stroke patients


Haihong Nguyen
Administrative Associate

Haihong Nguyen is an Administrative Associate, providing support to Drs. Karen Hirsch, Prashanth Krishnamohan, Christina Mijalski, Zachary Threlkeld, and Chitra Venkatasubramanian. In addition, she is the study regulatory manager. She has been with the Stanford Stroke Center since 2007.

Stroke APP

Fnu (Al) Alfandy, DNP, AGACNP-BC, ANP-BC, CNRN, SCRN
Lead Stroke Advanced Practice Provider

Al is a dual-certified nurse practitioner in adult primary care and adult/gerontology acute care. He completed his NP education at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and earned his doctoral degree (DNP) at UCLA. His clinical focus of interest has been in neurology since he became an NP, with vascular neurology subspecialty. He holds CNRN and SCRN certifications through the American Board of Neuroscience Nursing. He has several publications in neurology topics, and he served a guest speaker at national and international neurology conferences. He joined Stanford Stroke team in 2022 as the Stroke APP Program manager. He is a nursing faculty at University of Nevada Reno, and he served as the APP Council Co-Chair at his prior institution.


Sahar Weil, MSN, FNP-BC

Sahar is an ANCC board-certified nurse practitioner. She earned her bachelor's degree in science from the University of California Los Angeles and a master's degree in nursing from Columbia University, New York. She has years of Neurology experience in various neurology specialties (vascular neurology, neuromuscular, neuro-immunology, movement disorders, epilepsy, headache, memory disorder, and autonomic disorder) in both inpatient and outpatient setting. She joined Stanford Stroke in 2024 from UT Southwestern in Dallas.


Samantha Salas, MSN, AGACNP-BC
Stroke Advanced Practice Provider

Sam is a board-certified adult/gerontology acute care nurse practitioner for the Stroke Program at Stanford Healthcare. She completed her Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) at Yale University. Her professional training focuses on vascular neurology.  Prior to joining Stanford, Sam worked for the Yale New Haven Stroke Program in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. She is a certified Tobacco Cessation Counselor and has an interest in vascular risk factor prevention. She has been a part of several publications on neurology topics including telestroke patient satisfaction and statin therapy use prior to ischemic strokes. Sam also has a passion for education and helped develop the Stroke Busters High School Program that focuses on stroke education and prevention in the community.