2025 Speakers
J Mocco, MD, MS has dedicated his career to improving treatment options for acute stroke patients and advancing stroke systems of care. He serves on the Joint Commission Technical Advisory Panel for thrombectomy-capable stroke centers and sits on the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Quality Accreditation Science Committee.
Edward Duckworth, MD, MS, is an intracranial-focused neurosurgeon specializing in the treatment of complex cranial disorders, including the surgical treatment of hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke. He is system director of neurosurgery for St. Luke’s and a voluntary clinical professor at UC San Diego.
Adam Arthur, MD, MPH, attended college and medical school at the University of Virginia. During that time he joined the University of Virginia’s Department of Neurosurgery and conducted research on aneurysms and cerebral vasospasm.
Dr. Marc Ribo is an interventional neurologist from Hospital Vall d’Hebron in Barcelona who underwent a vascular neurology fellowship at the University of Texas-Houston (2004-5). His research work over the last 20 years was focused on improving access and efficacy of reperfusion treatments for acute stroke.
Alexander Khalessi, MD, MBA, is chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery; professor of neurological surgery, radiology and neuroscience; and the inaugural Don and Karen Cohn Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Neurosurgery at UC San Diego. He is the current president of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), the leading academic society for neurosurgical professionals worldwide.
Dr. Jovin is an expert in interventional and non-interventional treatment for the entire spectrum of stroke and cerebrovascular disorders. He was one of the nation’s first interventional neurologists, a medical subspecialty that uses minimally invasive technologies applied from within the vessels to diagnose and treat diseases of the arteries and veins of the head, neck, and spine such as acute stroke, carotid stenosis, intracranial aneurysm, and arteriovenous malformations.
John Perl II, MD, is the director of neurointervention at St. Luke’s and formerly served as its neuroscience medical director. He was instrumental in establishing the stroke program and the endovascular neurosurgical and interventional neuroradiology program for the health system.
Imran Chaudry, MBBS is a neurointerventional radiologist who completed his radiology residency at the Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, a Neuroradiology fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, and his Neurointerventional radiology fellowship at the University of Wisconsin and at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. Dr. Chaudry was the fellowship director at MUSC. He is currently a Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina (Greenville, SC) and serves as program and fellowship director at Prisma Health Greenville, SC.
Dr Alexandrov received his MD degree in 1989 from the 1st Moscow Medical Institute (Sechenov) and specialized in clinical neurology at the Institute of Neurology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Dr. Josh Abecassis is an ABNS board certified, cerebrovascular/skullbase neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, where he is Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery, the Director of the Cerebrovascular Program, and Director and Founder of the Louisville Cerebral Bypass Program. He sees and treats patients with the full spectrum of cerebrovascular disease, as well as patients with skull base tumors.
Philip Bath (FRCP DSc FMedSci) is Stroke Association Professor of Stroke Medicine, Head of Academic Stroke and Director of the Stroke Trials Unit at the University of Nottingham; an Emeritus National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator; and a consultant stroke physician at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. He was the UK Stroke Association’s Keynote Lecturer in 2015, the International Stroke Conference William M Feinberg Award Lecturer in 2016 and received Presidents’ Awards from the British Association of Stroke Physicians in 2019, World Stroke Organisation in 2021 and European Stroke Organisation in 2023.
Dr. Srinivasan is a comprehensive cerebrovascular neurosurgeon, with advanced training in both microsurgical/skull base techniques as well as endovascular techniques to treat cerebrovascular disorders. As director of the Kim Innovation Lab, his group performs translational research studying aneurysm healing, endovascular device development and testing, intravascular imaging, and intra-arterial therapy for tumors.
Dr. Starke is a member of the departments of Neurological Surgery, Neuroradiology, Pharmacology, and Neurosciences. He has a busy clinical practice performing more than 700 operations each year.
Professor Joanna Wardlaw, CBE, MD, FRSE, FMedSci, is Professor of Applied Neuroimaging at the University of Edinburgh, Foundation Chair in the UK Dementia Research Institute, and Consultant Neuroradiologist for NHS Lothian. Her work focuses on understanding the brain and its blood supply, and on treatments to improve blood flow to the brain, including thrombolytic drugs that are now in routine use to treat stroke, and more recently on treatments for small vessel disease and vascular dementia.
Lucas Elijovich, MD, earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Tufts University and his medical degree from the University of Texas at Galveston. He completed his neurology residency at New York University, where he served as chief resident.
Dr. Ramesh Grandhi is an ABNS certified, dual-trained cerebrovascular neurosurgeon. He has extensive clinical and research experience with patients with cerebrovascular and traumatic pathologies. He currently practices at the University of Utah where he is the Division Chief of Endovascular Neurosurgery and of Neurotrauma.
Dr. Jay U. Howington, MD, completed his undergraduate work at Vanderbilt University and medical school at the Medical College of Georgia. After completing his residency at Louisiana State University and spending a clinical research year under the tutelage of Frank Culicchia (microsurgery) and Bob Dawson (interventional neuroradiology), he went to Buffalo with Nick Hopkins for two years. Upon the completion of his fellowship, he moved to Savannah to begin his practice and to work as an associate clinical professor in both the Departments of Surgery and Radiology at Mercer University as well as an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical College of Georgia.
Anne Alexandrov, PhD, AGACNP-BC, ANVP-BC, FAAN, is a professor of both nursing and neurology as well as the mobile stroke unit chief nurse practitioner at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.
Brett C. Meyer, MD, is a Stroke Neurologist and Co-Director of the Stroke Center at UCSD Medical Center, and is a Professor of Clinical Neurosciences in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego.
Brian T. Jankowitz, M.D. is a board certified neurosurgeon with a special focus on cerebrovascular surgery. He is CAST (Committee on Advanced Subspeciality Training) accredited in neuroendovascular surgery.
Jeffrey Steinberg, MD, is a neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health who specializes in vascular diseases of the nervous system. Dr. Steinberg completed specialized training in both open and endovascular neurosurgery;
Dawn Meyer is a Professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Neurosciences Department and a member if the UC San Diego Stroke Center. She is a trained Vascular Neurology Nurse Practitioner and has been in practice for 21 years as a Stroke Hospitalist.
Dr. Smith is a fellowship-trained neurointerventional radiologist with expertise in minimally invasive procedures of the brain, head, neck and spine. He specializes in both arterial and venous approaches for the treatment of many cerebrovascular disorders
J. Scott Pannell, MD, is a board-certified endovascular surgeon and interventional neuroradiologist. He is the director of neurointerventional surgery in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UC San Diego Health. Dr. Pannell earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Georgia, along with an additional American Chemical Society certification, and his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia.
Travis Smith, DO is a neurohospitalist who provides care for the breadth of neurological diseases for inpatients. He is a board-certified vascular neurologist who specializes in the care of acute ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes, TIA, and other diseases of central nervous system vasculature. He also teaches medical trainees, and has interests in team-based approaches to medical care and inpatient neurology.
Animesh Gupta, MD is a fellowship-trained neurologist and current neurohospitalist at St. Luke’s Hospital System. He specializes in vascular neurology and clinical neurophysiology, having completed his vascular neurology fellowship at the University of California, San Diego, and his clinical neurophysiology fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.