Functional Seizures and Epileptic Course Speakers
Barbara Dworetzky, MD, FAAN, FAES, FANA
The A.J. Trustey Endowed Chair, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Medical Director, The Bromfield Epilepsy Center
Chief, Epilepsy, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Barbara Dworetzky, MD, FAAN, FANA, FAES is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and Chief of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Epilepsy since 2009. She leads the Bromfield Epilepsy Center and the ACGME-accredited Clinical Neurophysiology and Epilepsy Fellowships. She has an ScB with Honors in Psychology from Brown University and obtained her MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and internship at the affiliated Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx before returning to Boston for residency at Harvard (now MGB). Following residency, she completed a two-year fellowship in clinical neurophysiology/epilepsy at BWH, Boston Children’s, and Beth Israel. Her first position was at the Boston VAMC, affiliated with Boston University School of Medicine where she directed several programs. Since her return to the BWH, she and her division have trained 60 clinical and research fellows from all over the world. She has received awards for leadership, professionalism, mentorship, teaching, clinical skills, and has over 140 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Dworetzky has served on multiple boards for patient and professional societies, and is the current president of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society (FNDS) She is internationally known for her work in functional seizures (aka psychogenic nonepileptic seizures/PNES).
Sara Finkelstein, MD, MSc
Associate Director
Functional Neurological Disorder Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
Instructor, Harvard Medical School
Sara Finkelstein is a neurologist and Associate Director of the Functional Neurological Disorder Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. She is a founding and active member of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society.
Michael Sperling, MD
Baldwin Keyes Professor of Neurology
Vice Chair for Research, Department of Neurology
Thomas Jefferson University
Director, Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center
Michael R. Sperling, M.D., is Baldwin Keyes Professor of Neurology and Vice Chair for Research at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, and Director of the Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. He is an internationally recognized clinician-scientist in the field of epilepsy, known particularly for his work in clinical neurophysiology, epilepsy surgery, and investigational therapeutics. He has published approximately 500 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, and book chapters, and several books. Over the years, his research interests have been in epilepsy surgery, neurophysiology of epilepsy, investigational therapeutics, cognitive electrophysiology, advanced neuroimaging, and epilepsy genetics. He was Editor-in-Chief of Epilepsia and is a former president of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society and the Philadelphia Neurological Society. He received the J. Kiffin Penry award from the American Epilepsy Society in 2018 and the Ambassador for Epilepsy award from the International League Against Epilepsy in 2021. He received the Herbert H. Jasper Award from the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society in 2024.