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About the Speakers

Audrey Brumback, MD, PhD

Audrey Brumback, MD, PhD

Dr. Audrey Brumback is currently a neuroscientist and pediatric neurologist at the University of Texas Dell Medical School. She grew up in Norman, Oklahoma with her parents Roger and Mary and brothers Darryl and Owen. Her first hands-on research experience was through the Sir Alexander Fleming Scholars summer internship program at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City under the mentorship of Drs. Michael Dresser and John Harley. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry through the Dean’s Scholars program at the University of Texas at Austin in 1999 under the guidance of Dr. Alan Cline. It was her senior research project with Dr. George Pollak that turned her on to the beauty and power of neurophysiology. She completed her MD and PhD at the University of Colorado Medical Scientist Training Program under the mentorship of Dr. Kevin Staley, where she studied the basic science mechanisms underlying the depolarizing effect of GABA in the neonatal brain. She finished residency at UCSF in 2013 through the Neuroscience Pathway in Child Neurology. During her last year of residency and continuing since then, she has spent the majority of her time in the laboratory of Dr. Vikaas Sohal in the Center for Integrative Neuroscience examining the cellular and circuit mechanisms of autism spectrum disorder.

In addition to her research, Dr. Brumback treats patients in the Sensory, Neurodevelopment & Autism Program and general child neurology clinic at the UCSF Pediatric Brain Center, and is the child neurologist for “Katie’s Clinic” for Rett Syndrome and Related Disorders at UCSF. As she transitions to being an independent investigator, she will focus her energy on studying the mechanisms of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders at the level of cells, circuits, and behavior. Dr. Brumback received the Child Neurology Foundation PERF Research Grant in 2015 and the CNS Philip R. Dodge Young Investigator Award in 2017.


Nina F. Schor, MD, PhD

Nina F. Schor, MD, PhD

Dr. Nina Schor is the seventh Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and the William H. Eilinger Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is also Pediatrician-in-Chief of the Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong and Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology & Anatomy.  Before arriving in Rochester, she was the Chief of the Division of Child Neurology in the Department of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She also served as Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology, and Pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh and held the Carol Ann Craumer Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. 

A native of New York City, Dr. Schor received her BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, her MD from Cornell University, and her PhD from Rockefeller University. Her work at Rockefeller University resulted in being awarded a U.S. Patent and an IND from the FDA for development of a mucolytic agent for use in children with cystic fibrosis.  She did her Pediatrics and Child Neurology residencies at Harvard University, Children’s Hospital of Boston, and the Longwood Area Neurology Program. Dr. Schor heads a research effort aimed at design and development of new strategies for treating tumors of the nervous system, including neuroblastoma and pheochromocytoma and for understanding the developmental mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. She served as Associate Dean for Medical Student Research at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Schor’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health, among other agencies, since 1988. 

Dr. Schor has been a Counselor of the Society for Pediatric Research, Secretary-Treasurer of the Child Neurology Society (2004-10), and President of Professors of Child Neurology. She has served most recently as President of the Child Neurology Society (2013-15) and as a member of the Executive Council of the American Pediatric Society and the Science Committee of the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Schor was given the Child Neurology Society’s highest honor, the Hower Award, in October 2017.