Our Board of Directors are passionate about improving our world health. Their volunteer work is supported by the CNS global community and generous corporate partners.
Jump to: Elad I. Levy, MD, MBA, FACS, FAHA | David B. Crawford, CFA | Steven N. Kalkanis, MD: CNS President-Elect | Ricardo J. Komotar, MD, FACS | Brian V. Nahed, MD, MSc. | Ganesh Rao, MD | Clemens Schirmer, MD, PhD | Martina Stippler, MD | David B. Crawford, CFA | David B. Crawford, CFA | Praveen V. Mummaneni | Gita Barry, MBA
Elad I. Levy, MD, MBA, FACS, FAHA: Chair
Dr. Elad Levy is Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiology, L. Nelson Hopkins, MD Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery, Jacobs School of Medicine at Biomedical Sciences, at State University of New York at Buffalo. In 2017 he was appointed as one of 12 National Directors to the American Board of Neurological Surgery. In 2018 he was appointed Secretary to the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) Executive Committee and appointed to the 2018 American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Ethics Committee for a two year term. His most recent award in 2018 was receiving the “2018 Drake Lectureship” at the CV Section at CNS. Dr. Levy has a national and global reputation in the field of neurovascular disease, and has co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications, including several in the New England Journal of Medicine. He has also co-authored many published books in neurovascular disease, his most recent being “Decision Making in Neurovascular Disease” Thieme Publishers, May 1, 2018.
David B. Crawford, CFA
David B. Crawford, CFA is the President of Crawford Investment Counsel and has been with the firm since 1992. Crawford Investment Counsel has over $6.3 billion in assets under management serving both institutional and private clients. All client portfolios are internally managed utilizing the firm’s proprietary investment strategies. David is responsible for managing the organization on a day-to-day basis and works with a limited number of clients. Prior to joining Crawford Investment Counsel, David was a member of the credit department with The Federal Home Loan Bank.
David received his BA in Economics from Denison University, his MS in Finance from Georgia State University, and he has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He has served on both the Board of Mercy Care Foundation and as Chairman of Mercy Care’s Investment Committee. David currently sits on the Board of Directors for Saint Joseph’s Health System.
Steven N. Kalkanis, MD: CNS President-Elect
Dr. Kalkanis is Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, and co-director of the Neuroscience Institute, at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan. Since Dr. Kalkanis became chair in 2014, the Department has grown to 32 faculty with 2 residents per year, and with a total of 7 NIH R01 grants currently in Neurosurgery. Dr. Kalkanis also serves as Medical Director of the Henry Ford Cancer Institute (HFCI). Under his leadership, HFCI has grown to a $1.2billion enterprise with 1425 employees treating more than 8,000 new cancer patients each year.
Dr. Kalkanis joined Henry Ford in 2004 after completing his neurosurgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital. He graduated with highest honors from Harvard University with the John Harvard Award, and then Harvard Medical School, where he served as Class Marshal and received the Linnane Prize for highest academic achievement.
In 2009, Dr. Kalkanis led a multidisciplinary team of experts to publish the largest set of guidelines to date on the treatment of metastatic brain tumors. He was the founding chair of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) Guidelines Committee where he helped to spearhead ten clinical practice guidelines in a myriad of topics, and he is the vice-Chair of the AANS/CNS Joint Guidelines Review Committee. He also is a past president of the Michigan Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Dr. Kalkanis served as Chair of the AANS/CNS Section on Tumors from 2016-2018. In 2018, he was named a Director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. Elected to the CNS Executive Committee in 2009, Dr. Kalkanis has served in numerous leadership roles, including Scientific Program Chair, Secretary, and now President-Elect.
With the goal of refining personalized medicine treatment protocols, and as the Mark Rosenblum Endowed Chair in Neurosurgery, Dr. Kalkanis runs an NIH-funded translational research laboratory investigating molecular genetic differences between short-and long-term glioma survivors. Specializing in brain tumor surgery, he has been involved in numerous clinical trials and has authored over 135 peer reviewed publications.
Ricardo J. Komotar, MD, FACS
Dr. Komotar is Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in neuroscience from Duke University, spending a year at Oxford University in England to focus on neuropharmacology. He received his medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with highest honors and completed his internship and neurosurgical residency at Columbia University Medical Center/The Neurological Institute of New York, followed by a surgical neurooncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to specialize in brain tumors.
As Director of the University of Miami Brain Tumor Initiative, Director of Surgical Neurooncology at the University of Miami, Director of the UM Neurosurgery Residency Program, and Director of the UM Surgical Neurooncology Fellowship Program, Dr. Komotar’s main clinical interests are surgical and radiosurgical (Gamma Knife) treatment of primary and metastatic brain tumors, as well as meningiomas and pituitary lesions. Dr. Komotar is an internationally recognized leader in the field of brain tumors and performs nearly 700 procedures for these conditions each year using advanced cutting-edge surgical/radiosurgical techniques, making him one of the highest volume brain tumor surgeons in the world.
His research interests include clinical trial development and translational neurooncologic investigations designed to pioneer new therapies for brain tumors. Author of over 500 peer-reviewed scientific articles, book chapters, and invited editorials, Dr. Komotar has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health as well as other national and regional grants. He has served on the Executive Committee for the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the Executive Board for the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Tumors. He is Founder and Director of the Annual Neurosurgery Charity Softball Tournament to benefit brain tumor research. He is a member of the Society of Neurooncology and reviewer for both Neurosurgery and the Journal of Neurosurgery. Dr. Komotar is also an Emmy ® nominated physician for his work on the series “Breakthrough Medicine”.
Brian V. Nahed, MD, MSc.
Dr. Brian Nahed is a neurosurgeon specializing in brain tumors (glioblastoma, gliomas (low grade and high grade), metastatic brain tumors, and meningiomas) as well as Spinal Disorders. Dr. Nahed specializes in brain tumors of the eloquent cortex (language and motor areas of the brain) which require mapping (awake surgery, language and motor mapping, and subcortical stimulation).
Born in New York, Dr. Nahed attended UCLA where he majored in Neuroscience, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and with the department's Highest Honors. He attended the Yale School of Medicine where he was awarded the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship and graduated with honors. Dr. Nahed completed his internship and neurosurgery residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital; where Dr. Nahed also completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Drs. Daniel Haber and Shyamala Maheswaran in the MGH Cancer Center.
Dr. Brian Nahed was recruited to the MGH Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Center in 2011. As an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Brian Nahed's research focuses on developing the first blood based test to diagnose and monitor brain tumors. In collaboration with Drs. Haber, Maheswaran, and Stott, Dr. Nahed published the first evidence of circulating tumor cells in the blood of patients with glioma. Dr. Nahed is working to provide patients and their clinicians with the first blood test for brain tumors. Dr. Brian Nahed serves as the Associate Director of the MGH Neurosurgery Residency Program. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the CNS/AANS section on Tumors. He serves as the Chair of the CNS Leadership Institute, and Vice-Scientific Programming Chair.
Ganesh Rao, MD: CNS President, 2018-2019
Dr. Ganesh Rao is a Professor of Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He has been a faculty member since 2006. Dr. Rao is the recipient of numerous awards including the American Brain Tumor Society's Young Investigator Award and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Preuss Award for Excellence in Basic Neurosurgical Research. Dr. Rao's laboratory efforts are focused on modeling the genetic basis of malignant gliomas in mice and he is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health. His clinical interests include the surgical management of primary and metastatic brain tumors. He also has significant experience with the surgical management of primary and metastatic spinal column tumors. He has authored over 100 manuscripts on a wide variety of topics in neurosurgical oncology. He has been recognized by U.S. News and World Report and Best Doctors in America.
Clemens Schirmer, MD, PhD
Coming Soon
Martina Stippler, MD
Dr. Martina Stippler is Director of Neurotrauma at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She completed her neurosurgery training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She has a busy complex spine and endoscopic pituitary practice. Her research interests are in multimodal TBI management, triage of mild TBI and end of life discussion and goal of care discussion in the urgent setting. She has participated in many landmark TBI studies such as PROTECT, RESCUE acute SDH trial and, coming soon, BOOST III. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and as a member at large of the AANS/CNS section of Neurotrauma and Chair Elect of Women in Neurosurgery.
Praveen V. Mummaneni
Coming Soon
Gita Barry, MBA
Gita joined Penumbra as Vice President, Global Marketing in January 2016. Prior to joining Penumbra, Gita worked at Stryker Corporation for twelve years where she held a variety of positions with successfully greater responsibility in both Stryker’s Orthopedics group and Neurovascular division in product management, strategy, business development/integration and information technology. Prior to Stryker, Gita held various product development roles with other cardiovascular medical device companies including WL Gore and Associated and Cordis in the areas of coronary and peripheral vascular products. Gita received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami (FL) and an Executive MBA from Santa Clara University.