Proposed Slate of 2023–2025 AAN Board of Directors

José H. Posas, MD, FAAN, is a sports neurologist at Ochsner Health in New Orleans, LA. He serves as the Ochsner Neurology Residency Program Director, the Neurology Department Chief Diversity Officer, as well as serving on the Ochsner Health Physician Diversity Council. He is assistant clinical professor of the Ochsner Clinical School/ University of Queensland Medical School program.

He has been passionate about equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) efforts and was formally recognized as such since graduating from the AAN Diversity Leadership Program in 2017. Posas has previously contributed to the AAN EDI Joint Coordinating Council and mentored the student-run Neuro Equity Coalition. Accomplishments at his institution include having EDI efforts front and center for quality improvement initiatives and giving talks to physician leads systemwide and across the state of Louisiana. He is a founder of El PODER, which is a future physician shadowing and observer opportunity to marginalized and minoritized individuals at the high school and collegiate level. At the AAN, he is proud to serve as chair of the Underrepresented in Neurology SynapseSM Group, chair of the Innovation Hub, and active member of the IDEAS, eLearning, and Pipeline Subcommittees. Posas is the face of the AAN’s NeuroPanels and thrilled to be able to connect experts in their various subject matters in a less formal manner to learners at the graduate level and beyond to complex, subspecialty concepts for non-subspecialist. He plays Dungeons and Dragons with other AAN members mostly for fun, and at times for BrainPAC. He has a penchant for bowties and sneakers, is an avid coffee drinker, and purveyor of puns and dad jokes.

Posas went to Louisiana State University Health Sciences

School of Medicine in New Orleans to complete his medical degree. He completed his neurology residency at the University of Miami at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, FL, where he was administrative chief in his senior year of training. He completed fellowship in sports neurology at Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, where he was the inaugural Sports Neurology Fellow.

Ex Officio (voting)

Bruce H. Cohen, MD, FAAN, is the director of the NeuroDevelopmental Science Center and Director of Scientific Affairs and Clinical Trials of the Rebecca D. Considine Research Institute at The Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Akron, and professor of pediatrics and professor of integrative medical sciences at Northeast Ohio Medical University. He holds the Phillip H. Maynard Chair in NeuroDevelopmental Sciences. Cohen attended Washington continued from page 15

University, graduating summa cum laude with a BA in chemistry. He attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

Following pediatric training at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, he did his neurology training at the Neurological Institute of New York, before returning to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for a fellowship in pediatric neuro-oncology. He spent the next two decades at The Cleveland Clinic, serving as a pediatric neurologist, neuro-oncologist, and practicing neurogenetics before moving to Akron Children’s Hospital in 2011 to pursue work in clinical trials. His clinical practice is centered on caring for children and adults with mitochondrial disorders, neurogenetic illness, and brain tumors, and he has a busy clinical research practice. His administrative responsibilities dovetail into his academic and practical interests in health care economics and health care delivery models.

Cohen’s academic career initially involved clinical trials for treatment of brain tumors in infants and children, and then transitioned in the emerging field of mitochondrial medicine. He also developed an interest in health care economics and practice management in the early 1990s. Cohen has served as chair of the Child Neurology Section of the American Academy of Neurology, chair of the Practice Committee of the Child Neurology Society, and chair of the Coding Subcommittee of the Medical Economics and Management Committee of the AAN. He has served as secretary-treasurer, and currently serves as president of the Child Neurology Society. In 2010, he joined the AAN’s CPT team and became the lead advisor to the CPT Panel from 2016–2022. In 2021, he took on two new additional roles within the AAN: chair of the Advocacy Committee (which includes all the subcommittees covering the legislative and regulatory work) and a seat on the Board of Directors. Cohen has participated in the education of dozens of neurology residents and fellows; led over a dozen international symposia; organized and conducted investigator-initiated clinical trials in brain tumors, neurofibromatosis, and mitochondrial disorders; and has authored 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts and delivered 670 invited lectures.

Brad C. Klein, MD, MBA, FAAN, is a full-time practicing neurologist with additional certifications in headache medicine and electromyography in his private practice at Abington Neurological Associates, Ltd., in Abington, PA. He has been a participant, principal, and/or coordinating investigator in numerous clinical trials and further serves as the practice’s chief financial officer. He is also the director of the Abington Headache Center, Abington-Jefferson Health, and a clinical professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU).

He received his medical degree from Sidney Kimmel Medical College, previously known as Jefferson Medical College, at TJU in Philadelphia, concurrently with his Master of Business Administration degree at Widener University. He completed his neurology residency and headache fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

During Klein’s residency, he graduated from the Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum and founded the Pennsylvania Neurological Society, serving as its first president. Through his tenure, he provided multiple testimonies to the state legislature and was an advisor on multiple legislative bills. Thereafter, he served in a number of other state and national leadership roles, including treasurer of the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy, chair of the Practice Management Committee of the American Headache Society, and Governor-appointed member of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.

Within the AAN, Klein has served as a member of the Practice Management and Technology Subcommittee, Health Services Research Subcommittee, Benchmark Survey Work Group, Solo and Small Practice Work Group, Meeting Management Committee, many education topic work groups, as well as chair of the Medical Economics and Practice Committee.

He has been the recipient of numerous local, regional, and national awards, including “Patient’s Choice Award,” and Castle Connelly’s “Top Doctor.”

José G. Merino, MD, MPhil, FAHA, FAAN, is a professor in the department of neurology at Georgetown University Hospital, where he is also co-vice chair for education. Merino studied medicine at the Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico City and obtained a Master of Philosophy degree on the history of medicine from the University of Cambridge in England. He trained in neurology and psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and in stroke at the University of Western Ontario. He has worked as faculty and clinical staff of the Section of Stroke Diagnosis and Therapeutics of NINDS, the University of Florida, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and the University of Maryland. His clinical and research interests focus on the management of patients with acute stroke. Merino has been engaged in editorial pursuits throughout his career. He has been a member of the editorial board of Stroke, the Revista Mexicana de Neurociencia, and science editor of AAN.com. Most recently, he was the US research editor of The BMJ from 2012 until 2019.

He has served the AAN as a member of the Science Committee, Nominations Committee, Meeting Management Committee, Leadership Development Committee, and immediate past chair of the Diversity Leadership Subcommittee. Currently, he is editor-in-chief of Neurology ® journals, is a member of the editorial board of the AAN’s Brain & Life® en Español, and is chair of the Publication Committee.

Maisha T. Robinson, MD, MSHPM, FAAN, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Mayo Clinic in Florida, with a joint appointment in the Department of Internal Medicine. Upon joining the staff of Mayo Clinic, she established the clinic’s first neuropalliative care program and she currently serves as the chair of the Division of Palliative Medicine and as the program director for the Palliative Medicine Fellowship.

Robinson earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine, subsequently completing a residency in neurology at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where she served as chief resident. She pursued a fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and returned to Mayo Clinic in Florida for a neurohospitalist fellowship. She was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in health services and health policy research through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA, during which she earned a Master of Science degree in health policy and management and engaged in research focused on the intersection of neurology and palliative medicine. Robinson has spoken nationally and internationally on neuropalliative care, she edited a book titled Case Studies in Neuropalliative Care, and she is a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine Approval Committee on Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Within the AAN, Robinson was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Emerging Leaders Forum and she has participated in the Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum. She has served as vice chair of the Meeting Management Committee, chair of the Medical Student Diversity Subcommittee, vice chair of the Pain and Palliative Care Section, and a member of the Leadership Development Committee, Diversity Leadership Subcommittee, Nominating Committee, and Medical Advisory Board of Brain and Life® magazine. She has also served as a mentor in the Emerging Leaders Program and in the Women Leading Neurology Program.

Ex Officio (non-voting)

Mary E. Post, MBA, CAE, is the chief executive officer of the American Academy of Neurology, the world’s largest association of neurologists with more than 38,000 members. Leading a team of more than 200 staff with locations in Minneapolis, MN, and Washington, DC, Post is responsible for the AAN achieving its mission of promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care and enhancing member career satisfaction, as well as the AAN’s vision of being indispensable to its membership.