Secretary-Treasurer
Kara Stuart Lewis, MD, FAAN, FAHS, FCNS
Dr. Kara Stuart Lewis is a child neurologist and a proud member of the Child Neurology Society since her residency. She received her BA in Anthropology from Pomona College before receiving her medical degree from the University of Arizona. She did her pediatrics training at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center and completed her child neurology residency at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. She served as the Program Director for the Child Neurology Residency at Barrow Neurological Institute starting in 2005. She moved the residency program to Phoenix Children’s Hospital in 2011 and continued to serve as Program Director for the Phoenix Children’s Child Neurology Residency Program until July 2021. She’s served as the Medical Director of Fetal Neurology since January 2022 in the Phoenix Children’s Center for Fetal Care and the Director of Education for Barrow Neurosciences at Phoenix Children’s since January 2023. She is board certified in Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology and holds subspecialty certification in Headache Medicine from United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties. She is a Fellow of the Child Neurology Society (inaugural class of 2024) as well as of the American Academy of Neurology and of the American Headache Society. She holds teaching appointments at University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine – Phoenix, and Creighton College of Medicine – Phoenix. She’s served on the national Medical Advisory Committee (nMAC) for Make-A-Wish America since July 2020, as well as many national and regional committees. For the Child Neurology Society, she was elected as Councilor for the West to the Board of Directors in 2014. She was appointed to the Nominations Committee in 2001 and was again in 2018. She served as Chair of the Bylaws Committee from 2020 through 2024. Outside of the CNS, she served as an academic judge for the Neuroscience Research Prize (supported by both the CNS and the AAN) from 2000 until 2007. For the AAN, she was appointed to the Neuroscience Award Subcommittee in 2005 and to the Education Subcommittee in 2019. For the ABPN, she was appointed to the Committee on Child Neurology Maintenance of Certification in 2015 and was recognized by the ABPN as an examiner for the Oral Boards in twenty or more of its examinations in June 2013.
Dr. Lewis’ clinical specialty interests include headaches and migraines in young children and adolescents, fetal neurology, and the long-term care of children across their life with cerebral palsy and other congenital neurological conditions. She is committed to the education and mentoring of the next generation of child neurologists. She has been married to Gordon Lewis since 1990, and they have three children.
What have been your most important or rewarding experiences in your years with CNS or other professional organizations, and how have these experiences shaped your vision of the direction CNS might take under your leadership?
My three decades of membership in and service to the Child Neurology Society have been incredibly enriching and rewarding. While the educational offerings, which have allowed me to stay current with the most recent developments in child neurology, have been extremely valuable, the relationships and camaraderie I have fostered and developed through CNS have been far more important to me. I attended my first Child Neurology Society Annual Meeting in San Francisco as a resident, and I was so lucky to have had a program director (Dr. Stanley Johnsen) who passed on his love of the CNS to me and took me around to introduce me to so many icons of the field that I had only heard about in my textbooks. I have gone on to attend scores of meetings, many as a program director myself, and I greatly enjoyed passing on that tradition of introducing those who I have taught to those giants in the field who attend these annual meetings. I have developed some of my strongest professional relationships, both with mentors and colleagues, through the Child Neurology Society, and the support of my CNS colleagues, mentors, and friends has been the biggest benefit of the organization for me. I was honored to be elected as Councilor for the West for the Child Neurology Society in 2014. I was appointed to serve on the Nominations Committee for the CNS from 2018-2022. I was again honored to be appointed as the Chair of the Bylaws Committee in January 2020 and reappointed in January 2023 to serve until January 2024. These positions have increased my admiration for and understanding of the Society and shaped my desire to continue to see the CNS thrive.
Although the Secretary-Treasurer position is often viewed primarily as a fiduciary and ministerial post, if I am elected to serve I will strive for our organization to maintain and enhance the Child Neurology Society’s offerings for professional connection, so that others in the profession—and especially those who are new to the profession—can have the support, mentorship, and resources that have been so helpful and gratifying to me and my career. CNS certainly must maintain the highest standards of quality and relevance in our educational offerings, and that is a high priority for me, as well. If elected, I will work to maintain the fiscal soundness of the organization, and I hope to join with the other elected officers to ensure that the Child Neurology Society is a valued and welcoming professional membership for child neurologists.
What are the most challenging issues facing child neurologists today, and how would the CNS, under your leadership, help its members meet those challenges?
I feel one of the most challenging issues facing child neurologists today is the expanding demands and pressures of the practice of medicine in our current times. The pressure of increased patient volume, the challenges of electronic medical records systems, the ever-growing body of information required to care for children and adolescents with neurological conditions, as well as the continued scarcity of child neurologists entering the profession, make the practice of medicine more administratively difficult and demanding, and sometimes less satisfying and fulfilling. The joy of helping patients and the fascination of figuring out diagnoses and care plans can sometimes get lost in end-of-visits, EMR clicks, and a press to see more patients in limited time. The Child Neurology Society has been a wonderful resource for me in addressing these demands, as it has facilitated my ability to confer with colleagues for support and ideas on managing the practice of medicine in these times. If elected, in addition to meeting the financial and fiduciary responsibilities of the role, I hope to encourage enhancement of the Child Neurology Society’s offerings related to practice management and personal/professional balance.
We are the only unified Society for all child neurologists, regardless of specialization, and that gives us unique access to and responsibilities for all in our profession. The percentage of child neurologists who go on to do fellowship training following the 5-year post-graduate residency program is increasing dramatically in the recent decade. We need to be the organization that is relevant to those who see all diagnoses, as well as those who have subspecialized. We need to recognize and support those in both outpatient and hospitalist environments, and those in rural as well as tertiary and quaternary referral centers. We have so much more in common with each other in child neurology, partly due to our passion for brain health from fetal life though childhood and adolescence and young adulthood; the CNS can nurture and sustain this passion. In working with the Executive Committee of the Child Neurology Society, I would continue to strive to both keep our members engaged and fulfilled but also bring back others who may have focused on subspecialty organizations who would benefit from all that the CNS would have to offer them. Our focus on education, research, and collaborative, multidisciplinary patient care, both diagnostically and treatment-related, but also from a preventative and advocacy space provides so much positive space as to ensure we stay both professionally and personally satisfied with our lifelong career as child neurologists. I would commit as Secretary-Treasurer, and as a member of the Executive Committee, to support the mission of the Child Neurology Society to continually expand the optimal care of all children and adolescents with neurological and developmental disorders through making the CNS an essential, invaluable organization for all in our field.