Apply for our Adult Epileptologist position at our Level 4 UCSF Epilepsy Center -- Dedicated colleagues, phenomenal epilepsy surgery, located in the greatest city in the world San Francisco but serving patients all over Northern California.
Vikram Rao MD, PhDDr. Rao oversees the entire Epilepsy Division of the Department of Neurology. He specializes in using medications, surgery, and implanted neurostimulation devices to care for patients with complex epilepsy. Rao's research involves using direct brain electrical recordings and implanted devices to better understand how abnormal patterns of brain electrical activity give rise to seizures. He also uses these tools to explore the cognitive dysfunction and mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression, that are common among patients with epilepsy.
Joseph Sullivan MDDr. Sullivan oversees the UCSF Pediatric Epilepsy Center, where he specializes in evaluating and caring for children with refractory epilepsy and has a specific interest in Dravet syndrome and PCDH19 related epilepsy. He has served as a principal investigator in a number of clinical trials of novel drugs in the rare pediatric epilepsies. He is a member of the Dravet Syndrome Foundation Board of Directors and Medical Advisory Board, chair of the PCDH19 Alliance Scientific Advisory board, and past chair of the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Consortium Steering Committee and Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California. He continues to expand the UCSF Pediatric Epilepsy Center of Excellence to provide family-centric care by hiring additional specialists who can attend to the unmet psychosocial needs of patients and their families living with epilepsy.
Edward Chang MDDr. Chang is a neurosurgeon and chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF, and also the co-director the Center for Neural Engineering at UC Berkeley and UCSF. He treats adults with difficult-to-control epilepsy, brain tumors, trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm and movement disorders. He has extensive experience with implantable devices that stimulate specific nerves to relieve neurological disorders, and specializes in advanced brain mapping methods to preserve crucial areas for speech and motor functions in the brain. Dr. Chang directs a clinical research program that is dedicated to improving long-term outcomes and safety of surgical treatments for patients with medically refractory epilepsy. In his laboratory research, he studies innovative technologies to preserve and restore speech, movement and cognition.
Kurtis Auguste MDKurtis Auguste is a pediatric neurosurgeon who specializes in disorders of the brain, peripheral nerves, and spinal cord at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, both at Mission Bay (San Francisco) and Oakland institutions. He specializes in personalized epilepsy surgery, and his expertise spans conditions including brain and spinal cord tumors, cerebrovascular and craniofacial disorders, hydrocephalus, neurotrauma, spasticity, and spinal dysraphism. His research focuses on and virtual reality visualization techniques for epilepsy surgery, and epilepsy and neuronal migration disorders (birth defects that occur when nerve cells have not moved into the proper parts of the brain during fetal development).
Susannah Cornes MDDr. Cornes is a neurologist who specializes in treating patients with epilepsy. She divides her time between caring for adults with epilepsy, conducting clinical and educational research, and teaching trainees at a variety of levels. She is the recipient of teaching awards from the Department of Neurology and the Academy of Medical Educators and has published in a variety of areas related to epilepsy.
Joline Fan MD, MSDr. Fan is a neurologist that specializes in the care of adults with epilepsy. She is dedicated to helping patients understand their epilepsy, optimizing medical therapy, and facilitating the presurgical evaluation for individuals with drug resistant epilepsy. Her research interests include understanding mechanisms underlying the relationship between sleep and epilepsy and improving diagnostic and therapeutic applications of neurostimulation.
Paul Garcia MDGarcia is a nationally recognized neurologist in the treatment of epilepsy and director of Clinical Epilepsy Services at UCSF Medical Center. His expertise covers a wide range of conditions and therapies, with a particular interest in treating epilepsy patients after surgery, advances in diagnosis and treatment of frontal lobe epilepsy and epilepsy in patients with brain tumors.
Manu Hegde MD, PhDDr Hegde treats seizure disorders and is skilled at using cutting-edge imaging and neurophysiological tools that measure nervous system responses. He is experienced at guiding patients who are interested in pursuing surgery for epilepsy, including looking at the option of implantable neurostimulation devices. His research focuses on finding epilepsy biomarkers including genetic underpinnings, factors that might predict the effectiveness of treatment before patients actually have a seizure.
Patrick Hullett MD, PhDDr. Hullett is a neurologist at UCSF who specializes in caring for people with epilepsy. He has expertise in the medical and surgical management of epilepsy. His research examines network mechanisms that generate emotion in the human brain to help inform epilepsy surgery and to understand the links between epilepsy and psychiatric disease.
Heidi Kirsch MD, MSDr. Kirsch is a neurologist who specializes in treating patients with epilepsy. She has a special interest in identifying where seizures originate and mapping the brain's functional regions to improve outcomes for those who have surgery. She studies new methods of mapping the brain and how seizures spread in the brain, along with how epilepsy affects cognitive function.
Jon Kleen MD, PhDDr. Kleen is a neurologist specializing in epilepsy care who is dedicated to stopping seizures and finding new ways to overcome epilepsy-related cognitive and memory problems. He is also a neuroscientist with expertise in signal processing (the use of computers to study patterns in large amounts of data), which he applies to cutting-edge diagnostic approaches and emerging therapies for cognitive problems and epilepsy, including brain stimulation.
Robert Knowlton MDDr. Knowlton is a neurologist and Medical Director of the UCSF Seizure Disorders Surgery Program. He specializes in diagnosing complex cases of epilepsy, such as those with no clear origin found using standard tests. In his clinical practice, Knowlton combines a variety of advanced diagnostic tests to pinpoint the source of seizures in the brain. His research focuses on neuroimaging and clinical decision making in the surgical treatment of seizure disorders and brain tumors.
Dan Lowenstein M.D.Dr. Lowenstein is an internationally known epileptologist who has served as director of the UCSF Epilepsy Center and president of the American Epilepsy Society. He is now the executive vice chancellor and provost of UCSF, and maintains an active role in the UCSF Epilepsy Center.
Tina Shih MDDr. Shih is a neurologist at the UCSF Epilepsy Center who specializes in treating epilepsy in the elderly, managing patients with drug-resistant seizures, and caring for patients who have surgery for epilepsy. She also has expertise in managing epilepsy during pregnancy and psychiatric conditions related to epilepsy. Her research interests include the use of antiepileptic drugs in nursing homes as well as racial and ethnic disparities in epilepsy.
Danilo Bernardo MDDr. Bernardo is a pediatric neurologist who cares for children with epilepsy. He specializes in treating epilepsy that begins in early childhood as well as drug-resistant epilepsy, including expertise in medicine-based and surgical treatments. His research focuses on using computers and mathematics to guide the diagnosis and treatment of severe forms of childhood-onset epilepsy.
Ernesto Giraldo-Gonzalez MDDr. Giraldo-Gonzalez is a pediatric neurologist who cares for children with epilepsy. He specializes in treating patients whose seizures have failed to respond to initial anti-seizure medications, including evaluations for epilepsy surgery and the placement of neurostimulation devices. He has a special interest in treating epilepsy with the ketogenic diet, and his research focuses on treating infantile spasms.
Adam Numis MDDr. Numis is a pediatric neurologist and specialist in epilepsy. He focuses particularly on children and adolescents with difficult-to-treat seizure, and infantile spasms, a particularly severe type of epilepsy. His research includes evaluating the connection between inflammation, genetic disorders, traumatic brain injury, and epilepsy.
Nilika Singhal MDDr. Singhal is a pediatric neurologist and epilepsy specialist who cares for children with difficult-to-control seizures. Her expertise includes evaluating patients to determine whether they are candidates for surgical treatment. She also teaches and mentors medical students, and pursues research into ways to improve patient care and the causes of health care disparities.
Brianna Paul PhDDr. Paul is a neuropsychologist and licensed clinical psychologist at the UCSF Pediatric Epilepsy Center, where she specializes in evaluating children with medically refractory epilepsy, or epilepsy that is difficult to control with medication. She also has expertise in evaluating pediatric disorders such as learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Brandon Kopald Ph.D.Dr. Kopald is a clinical neuropsychologist at the UCSF Epilepsy Center. He specializes in the cognitive assessment of adults with epilepsy that can't be controlled with medications. He also has expertise in surgical planning, with a particular focus on maintaining functional abilities and quality of life.
Sudha Lama is a nurse practitioner who specializes in caring for patients with epilepsy. She is certified in adult gerontology primary care and occupational health.
Maritza Lopez NP, MSNMaritza Lopez is a nurse practitioner who plays a crucial role in day-to-day operations of both outpatient (clinic) and inpatient (hospital) aspects of patient care. She plays a central role in the navigation of patients through pre-surgical diagnostic workups, surgical treatments, and beyond. She joined the center in 2004 and continues to lead by example in the top quality care and compassion we strive for at the UCSF Epilepsy Center.
Genavieve Smith NPGenavieve Smith is a nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist whose focus is the neurosurgical treatment of adults with seizure disorders, trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, and brain tumors involving speech and motor areas.
Nicole Tilton is a pediatric nurse practitioner who specializes in caring for children with epilepsy. She has sweeping expertise in the care and management of all aspects of seizures including medicines, associated cognitive and educational needs, and alternative treatments including the ketogenic diet.
Sandra Brusati is a Registered Nurse in collaboration with the Epilepsy Physician Staff. Sandra provides clinical care, telephone advice, and patient education to Epilepsy patients.
Rachel Schultz is a Registered Nurse in collaboration with the Epilepsy Physician Staff. Rachel provides clinical care, MyChart message and telephone advice, and patient education to Epilepsy patients.
Candy Huang manages all clinical aspects of inter-institution communications and obtaining outside records and studies, to help ensure continuity between outside referrring providers and our epilepsy specialists.
Cleo Magtibay manages all aspects of scheduling patients for their outpatient visits in our Epilepsy Clinic.
Faam Saetern holds a B.S. in Health Science and manages all aspects of scheduling patients for their stay in our Epilepsy Monitoring Unit and coordinates weekly admissions, surgeries, and more for the Epilepsy Center.
Chona Yanes works on medication prior authorization and reconciliation, as well as scheduling and authorization for psychiatry visits and neuropsychological testing.
Robin manages clinic and routine EEG appointment scheduling for the Pediatric Brain Center.
Gigi manages video EEG admission scheduling for the Pediatric Brain Center.
Leila manages the coordination of genetic testing, neuropsychological testing, and ketogenic diet appointments for the Pediatric Brain Center.
Sarianne specializes in the planning and delivery of the ketogenic diet to patients at the Pediatric Brain Center.
Sandra assists our patients in a variety of ways as both a social worker and therapist at the Pediatric Brain Center.
Mary BetinisDirector - Neurodiagnostics and Adult Epilepsy Services
John McPeckManager - Adult & Pediatric Neurodiagnostic Services
Liana RusuSupervisor - Adult Neurodiagnostic Services
Brianna CopelandSupervisor - Pediatric Neurodiagnostic Services
Administration - Neurodiagnostic Services
Adult Epilepsy Pre-Surgical Engineer
Advanced Neurodiagnostic Analyst