Speaker's Bureau

Eric Hargis, president
and CEO
Eric Hargis assumed his duties as president and chief executive officer of the Epilepsy Foundation on Feb. 1, 1999.

As CEO, Hargis is responsible for the day-to-day management of the organization and works with more than 50 independently-incorporated local Epilepsy Foundation affiliates across the nation.

In addition to his service with the Epilepsy Foundation, he has served as chair of the National Health Council, is on the Board of Community Health Charities and supports the international epilepsy community as Secretary-General of the International Bureau for Epilepsy.

Hargis formerly worked for the Arthritis Foundation, where he served as group vice president, Financial Development and as senior vice president, Operations before assuming the post of chief operating officer. He previously served in regional and district posts on the West Coast with the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the American Diabetes Association, and later became head of fund raising activities for the national diabetes organization.

Joyce Bender, Chair,
Epilepsy Foundation, Board of Directors

Joyce A. Bender is the CEO and Founder of Bender Consulting Services, Inc.; Bender Consulting Services of Canada, Inc.; and Bender and Associates International, Inc. All three specialize in providing various consulting services, while the first two also focus on placing qualified disabled people.

Joyce began her career in 1979 as a search consultant, and in 1988 founded Bender and Associates International, Inc., an executive search firm specializing in technology and management search.

In 1985, Joyce had a life-threatening accident due to epilepsy that caused an intra-cranial brain hemorrhage that required subsequent brain surgery. Against all odds, Joyce recovered from this accident that left her with a 60 percent hearing loss in one ear and a realization that she had epilepsy. As a result of her personal experience, she developed a passion for helping people with disabilities.

She established Bender Consulting Services, Inc. in September 1995 and Bender Consulting Services of Canada, Inc. in October 2001.

She has individually received dozens of awards, including being a Bush Administration New Freedom Initiative Award winner; and being selected by President Clinton as the President's Award winner; while her various companies have also received a great deal of acclaim, including being chosen as Employer of the Year Award in 2002 from the Epilepsy Foundation; and the 1999 Employer of the Year Award from hireAbility. Her many affiliations and offices include being a board member of a variety of different organizations for disabled people, including the American Association of People with Disabilities; The Center for Victims of Violence and Crime; and Accessibility Development Associates, among many others. She is on the board of advisors for the Homeless Children's Education Fund and a member of the board of trustees of Carlow University.

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.