Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology Fellowship Program

I am an attending physician in Neuropsychiatry clinic with a specialization in Functional Neurological disorders and related psychosomatic and dissociative conditions. My therapeutic orientations include integrated psychodynamic- and mindfulness-based approaches and neuromodulation-assisted psychotherapy. I am interested in the neural basis of mindfulness, concentration, and compassion practices from Buddhist meditation, and I have more than a year of silent retreat experience in the Theravada Buddhist meditation tradition.  My lab is interested in developing novel neuromodulation technologies to augment neuroplasticity and enhance the "unlearning" of maladaptive habitual ways of relating to the to the world. I have a K08 Career Development Award to measure how attention modulates neuroplasticity induced by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, using EEG steady-state visual evoked potentials and visual attention psychophysics. I have a Brain Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Award to develop in-human applications of transcranial ultrasound stimulation in the subcortical visual system and fear regulation circuit. I have a Simons Foundation Bridge to independence Award to develop closed-loop ultrasound neuromodulation technologies to enhance behavioral flexibility in autism spectrum disorders. I work closely with mentors Anthony Norcia, Kim Butts Pauly, and Nolan Williams on these projects. 

Dr. Bajestan is Chief of Neuropsychiatry Services, and Associate Neuropsychiatry Fellowship Director. She is double boarded in General Psychiatry, and Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology. Dr. Bajestan has received her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. She spent her training during her PhD and post-doctoral course in learning the molecular biology of neurological (HTLV-1 Associated Myelopathy and Desert Hedgehog signaling pathway) and psychiatric disorders (population genetic of Schizophrenia). Dr. Bajestan was the first neuropsychiatry fellow at Stanford University and established this fellowship with Dr. John Barry. Dr. Bajestan is an active member of few committees in American Neuropsychiatric Association including Committee on Research and Career Development Award. Dr. Bajestan cares deeply about wellbeing of trainees and is a member of Wellconnet Program and offers coaching and mental health help to faculty and trainees at School of Medicine. Dr. Bajestan is a nationally known expert in Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) and in integration of neuroscience education in psychiatry training. She co-leads the FND section of Committee on Research in American Neuropsychiatric Association.

Dr. Barry is board certified in internal medicine, psychiatry and neurology, and neuropsychiatry and behavioral neurology. Dr. Barry has an extensive experiences in a variety of aspects of medicine including being an Emergency Medicine physician, internist and country doctor, infectious disease specialist and geriatrician and is board eligible in the last two subspecialties. He has been seeing patients at Stanford University Hospital since 1989 after graduating from the Stanford Psychiatry program. In 1992 he started focusing on neuropsychiatry and eventually started the neuropsychiatry clinic and program in the department of psychiatry. Since that time, Dr. Barry has developed an interest and specialty in the psychiatric aspects of epilepsy and has conducted research in this area. He also has interests in Huntington’s and Parkinson ’s disease, TBI, Multiple Sclerosis, etc. Dr. Barry is the consummate teacher and has been involved in the psychiatry department with teaching responsibilities since graduating from the program. Dr. Barry has won department teaching awards as well as a national teaching award from the APA. Dr. Barry is the co-director of the neuropsychiatry fellowship and co- director the individual psychotherapy clinic (IPC). Research interests have mainly focused on epilepsy but have also been involved with research on the utility of the Vagus Nerve Stimulator.

Dr. Choi is an interventional and forensic neuropsychiatrist on the Stanford faculty. He received his MD/PhD at UC-San Diego as part of NIH's Medical Scientist Training Program. He received his PhD degree in Neuroscience for work done at the Salk Institute in neural development. Dr. Choi’s clinical interests include neuromodulatory approaches to treat psychiatric illness, such as TMS. He is part of the interventional psychiatry group of Stanford Medicine, conducting clinical work and research to advance the power, precision, and scope of neuromodulation. As a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Choi specializes in neurolaw, an emerging interdisciplinary field that studies the use and misuse of neuroscience-based evidence in the courtroom. His research interests include the use of functional brain imaging to discern mental states (e.g. lie detection, pain assessment), and the neural basis for moral decision making.

Sai Folmsbee a clinical assistant professor in the neuropsychiatry section and leads the Neuroimmunology Disorders Neuropsychiatry Clinic. His clinical and research interests include the psychiatric manifestations of immune-mediated illness. He graduated from the Medical Scientist Training Program at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, where he received his Ph.D. investigating the role of cell adhesion in immunologic and neurologic processes.  He completed his general psychiatry residency training in the Psychiatry Research Pathway at the University of Pittsburgh. Afterwards, he completed the Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology Fellowship at Stanford University and joined the faculty in 2023. Currently, he is also the Neuropsychiatry Fellowship Course Director and Neuropsychiatry Rotation Director, as well as a faculty mentor for the Stanford Comprehensive Neurology Instructorship.

Dr. Kratter leads the Movement Disorders Neuropsychiatry Clinic and is the Director of Invasive Technologies in the Stanford Brain Stimulation Laboratory. His clinical interests include the neuropsychiatric aspects of movement disorders like Parkinson's and Tourette's as well as non-invasive and invasive neuromodulation approaches for movement disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and neuropsychiatric diseases more broadly. Trainees rotating through his clinic will gain substantial experience evaluating and managing a variety of neuropsychiatric symptoms that present with movement disorders, will learn to evaluate treatment-resistant depression and OCD patients for possible invasive therapies, and will gain hands-on experience programming deep brain stimulation (DBS) and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapies. Dr. Kratter’s research interests focus on improving outcomes and understanding the mechanisms of neuromodulatory treatments, in part by focusing on using both non-invasive and invasive approaches to inform the other bidirectionally. This includes both clinical and more mechanistic studies using techniques like repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and deep brain stimulation in combination with neuroimaging and electrophysiology. He is a co-investigator for such studies focusing on major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and acute suicidal ideation.

Dr. Lazarow is a licensed psychologist who specializes in providing clinical care for individuals and couples dealing with acute and chronic medical conditions. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium and completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at California Pacific Medical Center in the Health Psychology track. Dr. Lazarow is currently serving patients of the Neuropsychiatry Clinic at Stanford University's School of Medicine, practicing in a psychodynamic modality and often integrating mindfulness. In addition to providing individual and couples therapy, Dr. Lazarow has created Support and Mindfulness Groups specifically designed for individuals dealing with neurological conditions. Dr. Lazarow contributes to and has a great passion for supervision and mentorship of psychology and psychiatry fellows and residents.

Dr. Tucciarone received his bachelors’ degree in biology and philosophy from Union College. He spent three years as a Post-Baccalaureate IRTA fellow at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke investigating and developing MRI reportable contrast agents to map neuronal connectivity. Following this he entered the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD) at SUNY Stony Brook University. There he completed a doctoral dissertation in neuroscience under the mentorship Dr. Josh Huang at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. His thesis work employed mouse genetic dissections of excitatory and inhibitory cortical circuits with a focus on the circuitry of chandelier inhibitory interneurons in prefrontal cortex. He trained in psychiatry as a resident physician in Stanford Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences’ research residency track. His research interests include uncovering circuit mechanisms of psychiatric illness such as drug addiction and mood disorders with hopeful applications to novel therapeutics.

Dr. Sha is the Associate Vice Chair of Clinical Research, Co-Director of the Huntington’s Disease Center of Excellence and Ataxia Clinic, Co-Director of the Lewy Body Disease Association Research Center of Excellence, Clinical Core Co-Leader of the Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, and Director of the Behavioral Neurology Fellowship in Neurology Department. Her clinical and research work is devoted to caring for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. She also served on the California Governor’s Alzheimer’s Prevention and Preparedness Task Force Chaired by Maria Shriver in 2020. Dr. Sha received a Master’s degree in Physiology and an MD from Georgetown University, followed by Neurology training at UCLA and Stanford University. She completed a clinical and research fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at UCSF, where she focused on identifying biomarkers for genetic forms of frontotemporal dementia.

Dr. Williams is Director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab. He is triple board-certified in general neurology, general psychiatry, as well as behavioral neurology & neuropsychiatry and has a broad background in clinical neuroscience. In addition, he has specific training and clinical expertise in the development of brain stimulation methodologies under Mark George, MD. Themes of his work include (a) examining the use of spaced learning theory in the application of neurostimulation techniques, (b) development and mechanistic understanding of rapid-acting antidepressants, and (c) identifying objective biomarkers that predict neuromodulation responses in treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric conditions. Results from his studies have gained widespread attention in journals such as Science and New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch as well as in the popular press and have been featured in various news sources including Time, Smithsonian, and Newsweek.

Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology

Les Dorfman, MD
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Emeritus

May Han, MD
Assistant Professor of Neurology

Headache Clinic

Robert Cowan, MD, FAAN
Clinical Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences
and, By Courtesy of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

Nada Hindiyeh, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Stroke/Neurocritical Care

Maarten Lansberg, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology

Neil Schwartz, MD, PhD
Clinical Associate Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences
NeurosurgeryProgram Director for the Stanford Neurology Residency Program

Concussion and Traumatic Brain Injury

Jamshid Ghajar, MD, PhD, FACS
Clinical Professor
Neurosurgery

Viet Nguyen, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Doctor Quezada was born and raised in Guatemala. He completed medical school at Universidad Francisco Marroquin. After medical school, he worked for three years as a field doctor for a sugar mill where he cared for the sugar cane workers as well as their families. After that he completed residency a combined child neurology program at children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, and during this time he obtained a certificate in pediatric bioethics. After graduation, he held a position as faculty in the child neurology department of children's Mercy Hospital and was part of the Ethics Committee. As faculty, he was the director of the functional neurological disorders clinic and was part of the Tourette syndrome center of excellence faculty. He was trained in hypnosis with the national pediatric diagnosis training institute and used this knowledge to help his patients with neurobehavioral conditions. During his time as faculty he was involved in education of residents and medical students both at the outpatient and inpatient settings. Doctor Quezada decided to return to fellowship to further his education and understanding of the psychiatric dimensions of neurological conditions.

Dr. Saperia is one of this year’s Neuropsychiatry Fellows. Prior to and during medical school at Tel Aviv University in Israel, he was involved in research on autoinflammatory disease and tumor immunology. He completed his residency in psychiatry at New York Medical College-Westchester Medical Center where he researched immunologic aspects of neuropsychiatric symptoms. His clinical and research interests include psycho-immunology, psycho-oncology and palliative medicine, and dementia risk reduction.