Bradley L. Schlaggar, MD, PhD
President & CEO Kennedy Krieger Institute / Hugo W. Moser Research Institute
Academic Rank: Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Dr. Bradley L. Schlaggar (Honors ScB Brown University 1986; MD/PhD Washington University 1994) is the President & 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. Prior to moving to Baltimore in August 2018, Dr. Schlaggar was the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Developmental Neurology, in Neurology, and Professor of Neurology, Radiology, Neuroscience, Psychiatry, and Pediatrics, at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. In 1999, he completed his pediatric neurology residency training at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University. From 2014-2018, he served as the Head of Pediatric & Developmental Neurology, co-Director of the Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Center, and Neurologist-in-Chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He served as the Pediatric Neurology Residency Director from 2005-2013. At Washington University, Dr. Schlaggar was the PI for the Neurological Sciences Academic Award (NSADA)-K12 2007-2018. He has been on the Executive Committee of the CNCDP since its inception in 2016, and the Program Director since 2019, succeeding Dr. Michael Johnston upon his retirement
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 Humanitarian Award from the Tourette Association of America, the Norman Geschwind Award for Behavioral Neurology from the American Academy of Neurology, the E. Mead Johnson Award from the Society for Pediatric Research, the Frank Hatch Award for Outstanding Community Service from the John Merck Foundation, and the Peter Huttenlocher Award from the Flux Society for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. In 2021, he was elected into the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Schlaggar’s research efforts, funded primarily by the NIH, are directed at understanding the development of the brain’s functional network architecture in typically and atypically developing children. Throughout his career, he has been deeply involved in the training and career development of medical students, graduate students, fellows, and junior faculty.
Amy Brooks-Kayal, MD, FANA, FAES, FAAN
Title: Co-Director, CNCDP-K12 Professor & Chair Department of Neurology Andrew John Gabor, MD, PhD Presidential Endowed Chair University of California, Davis School of Medicine
Amy Brooks-Kayal, MD is a professor and the Chair of Neurology. She joined UC Davis in October 2020 after 12 years as a Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Chief and Ponzio Family Chair of Pediatric Neurology at the University of Colorado School and Children's Hospital Colorado. Dr. Brooks-Kayal trained at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), then spent 13 years on the faculty at Penn/CHOP. Her area of clinical focus is pediatric epilepsy. Her research focuses on regulation of gene expression during epileptogenesis. She is a Past President of the American Epilepsy Society, a past member of the NIH/NINDS Advisory Council and NST-1 review panel, CURE Scientific Advisory Board, and Commission on North American Affairs of the ILAE. She is currently Chair of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and a co-director of the national Child Neurology Career Development K12 program
Barry E. Kosofsky, MD, PhD
Academic Rank: Professor
Weill Cornell Medicine/New York Presbyterian
Dr. Barry Kosofsky is a Professor of Pediatrics, Pediatrics in Radiology, Neurology, and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is Chief Emeritus of the Division of Pediatric Neurology at New York-Presbyterian/Komansky Children’s Hospital. He is Board Certified in Neurology with Special Competence in Child Neurology, and in Brain Injury Medicine. Dr. Kosofsky is a clinician scientist who has developed and studied animal models of diseases which affect human brain development including prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse. The goal of his preclinical studies have been to gain mechanistic insights into such developmental brain disorders, as a starting point for improved diagnosis and potentially therapy for affected infants and children. This approach has included the use of sophisticated structural brain imaging methods as a foil for bi-directional translational research, which he has additionally applied to the fields of gene therapy for neurogenetic disorders, autism, and traumatic brain injury in human subjects. The focus of his recent research is identifying functional biomarkers predictive of ongoing symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). That effort incorporates the use of visual tracking, structural brain imaging, and functional assessments of vision, balance, and exercise tolerance. His research program also involves the study of biomarkers of autonomic dysfunction as a means of improving our ability to diagnose mTBI, and as a starting point for individualizing therapy for adolescents and adults with persistent post-concussive symptoms.
Dr. Kosofsky’s roles in the CNCDP are Executive Committee member and Retreat and Curriculum Oversight.
Erika F. Augustine, MD, MS
Associate Chief Science Officer, Kennedy Krieger Institute
Academic Rank: Associate Professor of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University
Kennedy Krieger Institute
707 North Broadway
Baltimore, MD 21205
Dr. Erika F. Augustine’s clinical research is focused on the development of new therapeutics in rare neurological diseases and includes FDA- and NIH-funded research in the neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses. She has also been active in programs to support those underrepresented in medicine. Dr. Augustine, a practicing pediatric neurologist and movement disorders specialist, directs activities supported by the grant aimed at strengthening the pediatric neurology research community by expanding the pipeline of skilled professionals. In the short term, she will promote awareness of NIH-funded research opportunities among child neurologists, and over the long term, she will implement programs designed to foster workforce development, mentorship, and educational outreach in the field of Child Neurology. Dr. Augustine’s roles in the CNCDP are Executive Committee member and Workforce Development.
Heather J. Fullerton, MD, MAS
Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics
Chief, Division of Child Neurology
Kenneth Rainin Chair of Pediatric Stroke Care
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Heather Fullerton is a pediatric vascular neurologist with more than a decade’s experience leading NIH-funded multicenter clinical research studies in the field of stroke in children. Dr. Fullerton is the principal investigator of the first NIH StrokeNet childhood stroke treatment trial. The FOcal Cerebral Arteriopathy Steroid (FOCAS) Trial, is a comparative effectiveness trial of corticosteroids for the treatment of focal cerebral arteriopathy of childhood (FCA).
She is the Chief of Child Neurology at UCSF and enjoys fostering the career development of junior academic child neurologists. She is the founding president of the International Pediatric Stroke Organization (IPSO), a 501c3 non-profit that aims to bring together health providers of multiple disciplines from around the globe to improve the lives of children with cerebrovascular disease.
Dr. Fullerton’s roles in the CNCDP are Executive Committee member and leadership of the CNCDP Scholar Oversight Program.
Annapurna Poduri, MD, MPH
Academic Rank: Professor of Neurology
Harvard Medical School
Dr. Annapurna (Ann) Poduri (Harvard summa cum laude 1994, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine 1998, Harvard School of Public Health 2007) is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. At Boston Children’s Hospital, she serves as Associate Director of Translational Research Program/Translational Investigator Service, Associate Chief for Academic Affairs in Neurology, Research Director for Robert’s Program in Sudden Death in Pediatrics, and as a founding steering committee member of the Children’s Rare Disease Cohorts Initiative.
She is a leader in the field of somatic mutation in neurodevelopmental disease and epilepsy genetics. Her work has led to the discovery of several genes associated with epilepsy, with a history of numerous NIH-supported grants. Awards include the AAN Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award, the ANA Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award, and the Isabelle Rapin Lifetime Achievement Award from Montefiore Hospital at Einstein College of Medicine. She has served as faculty for numerous NIH training grants (T32, UE5, K12) and career development courses in multiple disciplines, on NST-1 study section, and as an advisor to the NIH Intramural Program. From 2024-2025, Dr. Poduri served as NINDS deputy director.
Dr. Poduri’s roles in the CNCDP are Executive Committee Member and Mentorship/Advisorship of the CNCDP Scholar Oversight Program with a concentration on K08-focused Scholars and non-funded Applicants.
Renée Shellhaas, MD, MS
David T. Blasingame Professor of Neurology
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Promotions & Career Development,
Academic Rank: Professor
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Dr. Renée Shellhaas is a clinical epileptologist and an expert in pediatric neurophysiology, with a particular focus on neonates. She is an NIH- and PCORI-funded investigator whose multicenter, patient- and family-centered research spans neonatal seizures and brain monitoring, sleep in at-risk infants, and early-life epilepsy. She has extensive experience in research mentorship and career development. In her senior leadership role at WashU Medicine oversees faculty appointments and promotions, as well as professional development programming for the institution's approximately 3,000 faculty members. Dr. Shellhaas is a member of the American Epilepsy Society Board of Directors and serves as President of the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation.
Dr. Shellhaas's roles in the CNCDP are Executive Committee Member and Mentor/Advisor for the CNCDP Scholar Oversight Program, with a concentration on K23-focused Scholars and non-funded Applicants.