Speakers Bureau
Brien J. Smith MD, Chair, Epilepsy Foundation, Board of Directors
Dr. Smith is the Chair of Neurology and epileptologist for Spectrum Health Medical Group in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also serves as Chief of Clinical Neurosciences at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. His main interests include evaluation and treatment of patients with refractory epilepsy. He has specific research interests in magnetoencephalography, chronic intracranial brain stimulation, antiepileptic drug substitution, and post-traumatic epilepsy.
Page Pennell, Chair, Epilepsy Foundation, Professional Advisory Board
Dr. Pennell is Associate Professor & Director of Emory’s Epilepsy Program, Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine.
Currently, under National Institutes of Health (NIH) support, Dr. Pennell, is investigating antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during pregnancy and lactation, while also participating in 3 other trials under NIH sponsorship dealing with AEDs in the elderly, comparing outcomes with children of children exposed in utero to four different AEDs, and evaluating the efficacy and safety of adjunctive progesterone treatment in women with medically refractory epilepsy.
Her privately funded research includes an observational study of the relationships between sex steroid hormone levels, seizure frequency, and AED levels in women with catamenial epilepsy and a study to examine reproductive hormone levels in relation to specific AEDs in men with partial epilepsy.
Dr Pennell is the principal author or coauthor of numerous articles that have appeared in such peer-reviewed journals as Neurology, Epilepsia, and Annals of Neurology. She is the vice chair of two Special Interest Groups of the American Epilepsy Society: Issues of Concern for Women With Epilepsy and the Pregnancy Outcomes. Dr Pennell is also a diplomat of the American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology and of the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry, with subspecialty certification in clinical neurophysiology.
After receiving her MD from the University of Florida, Dr Pennell completed her neurology residency and epilepsy/clinical neurophysiology fellowship at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Following training, she joined the faculty of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, where she lives with her husband and two children.
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