President-Elect
Jorge Vidaurre, MD, FCNS
Dr. Jorge Vidaurre joined the staff of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in 2006, soon after completing his child neurology training at State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate and an epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology fellowship at Montefiore, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. He now serves as Director of the Pediatric Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship, head of the EEG Laboratory at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and professor of pediatrics and neurology at The Ohio State University. He is a skilled neurologist who has been recognized as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for the last several years.
Dr. Vidaurre has a long record of service to the Child Neurology Society (CNS) and other organizations. He currently serves as the Midwest Counselor on the Society’s Board of Directors and on the editorial board of the Annals of the Child Neurology Society. Dr. Vidaurre joined the Society’s International Affairs Committee in 2013 and served as the committee’s chair from 2015 to 2023. During his tenure as committee chair, he strengthened long-term collaborations between CNS and the International Child Neurology Association (ICNA), establishing international outreach and educational training programs across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Dr. Vidaurre has served on the CNS Scientific Program Committee, organized symposia, and given multiple presentations at the annual meetings. Dr. Vidaurre received the Child Neurology Society’s Gold Humanism Award in 2022 and was named a Fellow of the CNS in 2025.
Dr. Vidaurre has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous book chapters. He is a frequently invited speaker at national and international conferences. His work focuses on pediatric epilepsy, global health initiatives, and improving access to care. His study on reducing administration time for second-line therapy in status epilepticus was among the first to demonstrate the critical role of quality improvement in neurological emergency care. He contributed to the development of the 2021 BASED score, now used nationally and internationally to evaluate treatment response in children with infantile spasms. He currently serves as an advisor for the international NIH “Center Without Walls” grant on antiepileptogenesis in traumatic brain injury. Throughout his academic career, Dr. Vidaurre has prioritized the education and mentorship of the next generation of child neurologists. Many of his publications include residents and fellows as co-authors, reflecting his strong commitment to professional development.
Despite being a full-time academic physician and educator, Dr. Vidaurre has worked tirelessly to improve neurological care for children in resource-poor countries by developing educational and training programs in resource-limited regions. With the support of CNS and ICNA, he helped to build critical infrastructure in several regions, including establishing EEG laboratories and training EEG technicians. As Chair of the Education Task Force for the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), he developed a practical, interactive basic EEG curriculum in Spanish that is expected to be implemented across Latin America in the near future. These accomplishments reflect an ability to advocate and to develop productive collaborations between organizations and individuals.
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 experience as a member of the Executive Committee has given me a deeper understanding of how CNS functions and serves its members. Serving on the Board has also made me more aware of the challenges facing our Society as well as the opportunities to address those challenges and build a stronger, more resilient organization. One of my most rewarding CNS experiences has been leading the Society’s international outreach efforts as chair of the International Committee. This effort underscored the value of effective advocacy, clear communication, and meaningful representation in decision-making processes, strategies that will continue to be useful if I am elected. Finally, being a CNS member offers a great opportunity to reconnect each year with friends, colleagues, mentors, and trainees. For most of us, it is this sense of connection and collegiality that continues to define and enrich the CNS experience.
What are the most challenging issues facing child neurologists today, and how would the CNS, under your leadership, help its members meet those challenges?
Our profession faces several significant challenges, including the increasing stress associated with growing clinical demands, a rapidly evolving diagnostic and therapeutic landscape, a deteriorating research environment, and needed changes to the child neurology residency training requirements. Many of these challenges are aggravated by the limited involvement of child neurologists in critical decision-making processes. The Society should make a major effort to ensure that our members are included in these discussions. Our society already provides outstanding educational opportunities through its annual meeting, special interest groups, podcasts, and its new journal. It also serves as an important forum for members to connect, maintain professional relationships, and exchange ideas. However, a thriving society must remain responsive to the evolving needs of its members and recognize that those needs vary across career stages, practice settings, and personal circumstances. I will work to identify those needs and promote programs, resources, and opportunities that deliver meaningful value to all members. By fostering engagement throughout every stage of a member’s career, we can strengthen our community and encourage membership development and retention. Finally, I will continue to support efforts to collect, analyze, and disseminate demographic and workforce data. These data are essential for helping our colleagues better understand the current professional landscape, identify emerging trends, and anticipate the opportunities and challenges that will shape the future of child neurology.