A conversation taped at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Child Neurology Society in October 2018 among three members of the CNCDP Advisory Board: Drs. Bradley Schlaggar, Amy Brooks-Kayal, and Barry Kosofsky.
Bradley Schlaggar, MD, PhD
Dr. Bradley L. Schlaggar (ScB Brown University 1986; MD/PhD Washington University 1994) is the President and CEO of Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD, where he holds the Zanvyl Krieger Faculty Endowed Chair. He is a Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He directs the NICHD-funded Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) at Kennedy Krieger. He also directs the NINDS-funded Child Neurologist Career Development Program, supporting the career development of aspiring physican-scientists. Prior to moving to Baltimore in August 2018, Dr. Schlaggar was the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Developmental Neurology, and Professor of Neurology, Radiology, Neuroscience, Psychiatry, and Pediatrics, at Washington University School of Medicine where he also served as the Pediatric Neurology Residency Director (2005-2013) and, from 2014-2018, as the Head of Pediatric & Developmental Neurology, co-Director of the IDDRC, and Neurologist-in-Chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He has received numerous awards for research, mentorship, clinical care, and community service, including the Philip R Dodge Young Investigator Award from the Child Neurology Society, the Norman Geschwind Award for Behavioral Neurology from the American Academy of Neurology, the E. Mead Johnson Award from the Society for Pediatric Research, and the Frank Hatch Award for Outstanding Community Service from the John Merck Foundation. In 2021, he was elected into the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Schlaggar’s research is directed at understanding the development of the brain’s functional network architecture in typically and atypically developing children.
Barry Kosofsky, MD, PhD
Dr. Barry Kosofsky is the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Professor of Pediatrics and Chief, Division of Pediatric Neurology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Director of the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Laboratory of Molecular and Developmental Neuroscience. He is also a Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College as well as an Attending Pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He is Board Certified in Neurology with Special Competence in Child Neurology.
After receiving a B.A., M.A. in Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Kosofsky entered Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he was awarded his medical degree (M.D.) and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. He completed his pediatric residency training at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Following residency, Dr. Kosofsky served as Assistant Resident/Chief Resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he also completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the MGH-East Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory. In 1992, he was appointed Instructor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and joined the staff of Massachusetts General Hospital.
He joined Weill Cornell following 19 years at Harvard Medical School, where he was an Associate Professor of Neurology, and Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was an Associate Neurologist and Director of the Child Neurology Residency Training Program. Dr. Kosofsky is a past Scientific Program Planning Chair and served on the Board of Directors of the Child Neurology Society as Councillor for the Northeast (2011-13) and the longtime lead “anchorman” of the CNS Annual Meeting Child Neuro News Wrap.
Amy Brooks-Kayal, MD, PhD
Amy Brooks-Kayal, MD is Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chief and Ponzio Family Chair of Pediatric Neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado Dr. Brooks-Kayal trained at Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She joined the University of Colorado in 2008 after 13 years on the faculty at University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Dr. Brooks-Kayal’s area of clinical expertise is pediatric epilepsy. Her research focuses on the effects of seizure activity on neurotransmitter systems with particular emphasis on understanding the regulation of GABAA receptor expression in development and epileptogenesis, and development of new therapies for epilepsy. Dr. Brooks-Kayal is an active member of multiple professional societies including Child Neurology Society, American Neurology Association, American Academy of Neurology, Society for Neuroscience, and American Epilepsy Society. She is a past recipient of the Child Neurology Society’s Young Investigator Award (1999) and recently completed a term as President of the American Epilepsy Society. She acted as Co-Chair and Steward for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Epilepsy Research Benchmarks, is the former Chairperson of the NIH CNNT Study Section and currently is a member of the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Advisory Council.