#WomenInStroke Initiative: Our Nominees

A result oriented healthcare and community development practitioner with keen interest in public/global health (Stroke care). Aasiah Solanke is knowledgeable in advocacy projects, interacting with policy makers, developing projects and monitoring progress of projects.

Ah Hyun Cho is Professor at Yeouido St.Mary’s Hospital, Catholic University of Korea, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

In 2020 she was awarded the Best Presentation Award at Asia Pacific Stroke Conference 2020.

Some of her published articles as a first author or corresponding author (SCI);

1. Kyung Hee Cho, A-Hyun Cho et al. Differentiation of hemorrhagic infarction from primary intracerebral hemorrhage in the chronic period. J Clin Neurosci 2020;79:118

2. Eun-Ye Lim, A-Hyun Cho et al. Coexistence of cerebral microbleeds and amyloid pathology in patients with cognitive complaints. Journal of Clinical Neurology 2020;16:83

3. A-Hyun Cho, Mark Fisher, et al. Cerebral microbleeds in a stroke prevention clinic. Diagnostics 2020;10:18

4. Yong-Hwan Kim, A-Hyun Cho et al. Early functional connectivity predicts recovery from visual field defects after stroke. Journal of Stroke 2019;21:207

5. Hyuk Sung Kwon, A-Hyun Cho et al. Evolution of acute lacunar lesions in terms of size and shape: A PICASSO sub-study. J Neurol 2019;266:766

6. Eun-Ye Lim, Dong-Won Yang, Jung-Seok Kim, A-Hyun Cho. Safety and efficacy of anti-dementia agents in the extremely elderly patients with dementia. J Korean Med Sci 2018;33:e133

7. Lee KJ, Jung H, Oh YS, Lim EY, Cho AH. The fate of acute lacunar lesions in terms of shape and size. J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis 2017;26:1254

Amy Edmunds leveraged findings from her graduate studies to launch YoungStroke, Inc. as a non-profit patient advocacy organization in 2005 after previously experiencing cryptogenic stroke.

Two key collaborations propelled her work. First, Edmunds coordinated the first international scientific conference to address young stroke in conjunction with Mayo Clinic in 2015. Secondly, she co-authored the Young Stroke Questionnaire as a clinical assessment tool in collaboration with the University of South Carolina in 2019.

Her research earned awards from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke as well as the National Institute for Minority Health & Disparities. In 2018, she was re-elected by international peers to the WSO Board of Directors to represent stroke support organizations. In the same year, she was inducted as a Fellow of the WSO.

Anita Arsovska is Professor of Neurology at the medical faculty, University Ss Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, N. Macedonia, and Head of Department for Urgent Neurology at the University Clinic of Neurology. She is Vice-President of Stroke Alliance for Europe (SAFE) and one of the co-founders of the Macedonian organization for a fight against stroke- a stroke support organization. Other activities include regular public activities for promoting stroke prevention and raising stroke awareness (f.e. World Stroke Day, supporting World Stroke Campaign and European Stroke Day) and the organisation of public campaigns and scientific meetings.

Prof. Anna Członkowska MD, PhD finished Medical Academy in Warsaw. Since 1985, she is employed in the 2nd Department of Neurology in the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw (till end of 2013 as the head of the department). She is since years also collaborating with Department of Pharmacology, Warsaw Medical University.

Her main interests are: stroke (epidemiology, treatment, rehabilitation), neuroimmunology) and Wilson’s disease. She has passed several fellowships in neuroimmology and neuropathology ( UK, Germany, USA).

She is president of Cerebrovascular Section of Polish Neurological Society. She was founder and coordinator of the National Program for Prevention and Treatment of Stroke and the neurological part of the National Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Treatment Program in years 1997-2008. Since five years she is Country Coordinator of Angels Initiative and now is involved implementation of Stroke Action Plan in Poland. She participated and was national coordinator of many stroke clinical studies.

In year 1995-2018 she was in Committee for Implementation of “Helsinborg Declaration” in Europe. She is a member of the directory board of Central and East European Stroke Society, and for 4 years was the president of this society, organizing several teaching courses and stroke congress for this region. For a few years she served as the member of Directory Board of International Stroke Society, World Stroke Organization and European Stroke Organization She was the Chair of Stroke Panel EFNS/EAN in years 2015-2018.

She is honorary President of Polish Neurological Society, the member of Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Polish Academy of Science, American Neurological Association, American Academy of Neurology, German Society of Neurology and she is Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

She was promoting over 45 PhD students, and many from her group gained further degrees and independent positions in research or clinical neurology.

Prof Anna Ranta, MD, PhD, FRACP, FAHA, FWSO is a Wellington based Stroke Neurologist with expertise/experience in cluster RCTS, epidemiology, health service research, health economics, and indigenous health, whose research and professional work has focussed on optimising stroke care in New Zealand and internationally. Under her leadership her team has uncovered important geographic and ethnic inequities and service improvement opportunities that have led to the design and testing of several innovative stroke service interventions such electronic decision support tools for GPs aiding in TIA and atrial fibrillation management and use of telehealth in acute stroke care to form the largest telestroke network in New Zealand including a pilots to Scotland, to take advantage of time zone difference, and in the ambulance setting. She has developed and led the implementation of the NZ National Reperfusion Register, has been the Medical Advisor for and has evaluated NZ National FAST campaigns, and has most recently led the establishment of and co-directs the NZ National Stroke Clot Retrieval Improvement Programme. Her work has resulted in increased access to best practice stroke care for many New Zealanders with recent work showing a 14% stroke thrombolysis rate in both urban and non-urban centres across all of New Zealand. She leads the Wellington stroke service, the Central Region Stroke Network, is the immediate past National Clinical Leader Stroke, and is the current Head of Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington. She is a Board member of the World Stroke Organisation and the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurology, is the current President of the Neurological Association of New Zealand and Treasurer of the Stroke Society of Australasia. She collaborates with stroke researches from across the globe on multi-centre RCTs, epidemiology, health economics, registries, stroke coding, TIA, EVT, COVID-19 and indigenous health projects. She has been the PI on multiple >$1mill Health Research Council of New Zealand grants with multiple active research projects currently on the go currently finalising data dissemination of the NZ Nationwide REGIONS Care study. She also serves on Australian Living Stroke Guidelines Steering Group and the editorial boards of Stroke and Neurology.

Avril Drummond is Professor of Healthcare Research at the University of Nottingham. She is an occupational therapist with a longstanding clinical and academic interest in stroke rehabilitation and has published widely on clinical services and specific rehabilitation interventions, with over 200 publications to date. Avril is a past Chair of the UK Stroke Forum, a member of the Royal College of Physicians Intercollegiate Working Party for Stroke (which develops the UK national clinical guidelines) and she currently Chairs the European Life after Stroke Scientific Committee. She sits on multiple UK research funding bodies and is a trustee of the UK Stroke Association.

Dr. Bharti Manwani, MD, PhD, is a Vascular Neurologist and Assistant Professor of Neurology with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, USA. She is also attending physician at Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center and provides Teleneurology services to several hospitals in Texas at part of the UT Teleneurology program. Dr. Manwani runs a basic and clinical research program in stroke and vascular dementia prevention. The major expertise of her laboratory is in cardioembolic strokes (strokes caused by atrial fibrillation) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), both of which lead to vascular cognitive impairment. As a clinician scientist with a translational focus, her studies are connected by the goal of maintaining cognitive health and preventing vascular disease in the elderly, especially elderly women. She has received the American Heart Association career development award to study the complex role of atrial inflammation in atrial arrhythmogenesis, strokes and cognitive decline. Her studies on sex differences, aging and stroke have gained recognition and her goal is to promote women’s health through prevention of cerebrovascular disease.

References

1. Manwani B, Fall P, Zhu L, O'Reilly MR, Conway S, Staff I, McCullough LD. Increased P450 aromatase levels in post-menopausal women after acute ischemic stroke. Biol Sex Differ. 2021 Jan 7;12(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s13293-020-00357-w. PMID: 33413673; PMCID: PMC7792154. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33413673/

2. Manwani B, Liu F, Scranton V, Hammond MD, Sansing LH, McCullough LD. Differential effects of aging and sex on stroke induced inflammation across the lifespan. Exp Neurol. 2013 Nov;249:120-31. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2013.08.011. Epub 2013 Aug 29. PMID: 23994069; PMCID: PMC3874380. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23994069/

Prof. Bojana Zvan, MD, PhD, “primaries”, senior advisor, FESO, neurologist, full-time professor at the Medical Faculty University of Ljubljana, Co-creator of the vascular neurology in Slovenia and the founder of the national telestroke network - TeleKap She completed her medical studies at the Medical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (MF UL), acquired her specialty in neurology, finished her postgraduate master's study in clinical neuroscience at the University Zagreb, Croatia, and completed her doctoral dissertation at MF UL. Now she is a full-time professor at MF UL.

The Slovenian Medical Association awarded her the title “primaries” and in the year 2009 the title senior advisor of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia. In the same year, she had also been awarded the title “Female scientist of the year” in Slovenia.

Professor Zvan is the founder of the national stroke network – TeleKap, which is used for the treatment of stroke patients in remote places of the country with the help of telemedicine. Since the end of 2014, vascular neurologists have been assisting treatment of stroke patients in 12 Slovenian hospitals using the TeleKap network. Thanks to this project, the disability and mortality rate due to stroke has dropped significantly.

She has coordinated and participated in several multicenter clinical trials (PERFORM, PROMPT, Top-Slo-05, ICSS, MAGELLAN, QUICK, RESPECT-ESUS and the PERFORMANCE). In the year 2006 she was the head of the University Neurology Clinic – UMCL.

Since 2007 she is the president of the National Stroke Society and the vice president of the National Headache Society. She is the head of the Slovenian Neurosonology School and the professional head of the Society for the Prevention of Cerebral and Vascular Disorders. She is also the cofounder of the Migraine Association. She is also a member of the European Committee for Telemedicine, a fellow of the European Stroke Organization (ESO) and a fellow of the Controversies in Neurology (CONy).

Brenda Booth is a stroke survivor; her stroke occurred in 2001, when she was 41 years old.

She is a Registered Nurse (1978 - 1981). She has had extensive experience providing stroke advocacy and consumer input at a National and State level in Australia including the Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) NSW State Stroke Network since 2004 and for the last 3 years has been a member of the State Stroke Network Executive Committee. Her stroke advocacy and consumer input includes: Stroke Foundation Working Party for Stroke Guidelines review in 2007 & 2010; NHMRC Committee to review the implementation of the National Emergency Department Stroke & TIA Care Bundle; Stroke Foundation Consumer Council; Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health care (ACSQHC) Working Group to develop the National “Clinical Care Standard for Stroke”; Stroke Foundation Research Advisory Committee and Living Guidelines Consumer; International BMJ Rapid Recommendation Dual Antiplatelet Therapy (DAPT) Patient Partner (Published BMJ 18 December 2018); NHMRC funded STOPstroke research Associate Investigator (Australia & New Zealand); Stroke Consumer Representative Australian Stroke Coalition.

She was awarded the Stroke Foundation 2009 “Improving Life After Stroke Award” and an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 2019 for her contribution to stroke in Australia.

Charlotte Cordonnier is a neurologist specialised in stroke medicine with a PhD thesis in Neurosciences. Appointed as Professor of Neurology at the Lille University (France) in 2012, she has been the head of the Stroke centre of the Lille university Hospital since 2015. Since 2018, she chairs the department of Neurology.

Her research interests are intracerebral haemorrhages (including microbleeds) both in the setting of stroke and dementia, acute management of stroke, and stroke specificities in women. She is the director of the Lille Haemorrhagic Stroke research program inside the INSERM U1172.

She was vice-president of the European Stroke Organisation (2016 -2020) and is currently a member of the scientific committee of the European Academy of Neurology.

Since April 2020, she serves as Associate Editor for the Stroke journal.

Twitter account: @PrCCordonnier

Dr. Bushnell completed her neurology residency training, stroke research fellowship, and graduate degree in clinical research at Duke University. After 6 years on faculty in the Duke Division of Neurology, she joined the Neurology faculty at Wake Forest Baptist October 2007. She was Associated Director of the Women’s Health Center of Excellence from 2008-2010, led the WFB Stroke Center from October 2010 to June 2018, and has been Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Neurology since July 2018. Her clinical practice is focused on inpatient and outpatient stroke treatment across the continuum. Her research spans women’s issues related to stroke, including sex differences, preeclampsia, and a registry to study maternal and newborn stroke. Her current focus is on novel treatments for post-stroke cognition, and post-discharge care for stroke patients. She led the development of a new model of care using a nurse practitioner/nurse care team, which was shown to decrease 30-day readmissions. She is co-PI of COMprehensive Post-Acute Stroke Service (COMPASS) Study, a pragmatic clinical trial funded by Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which compares an enhanced version of the WFBMC post-acute stroke model of care vs usual care in 41 hospitals across North Carolina. She is PI of the Western NC StrokeNet Regional Coordinating Center funded by NIH/NINDS, and co-Director of the Neuroscience Clinical Trial and Innovation Center at WFBMC.

Cheryl Carcel is a Senior Research Fellow at the Neurological and Mental Health Division, The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, Australia and an Honorary Neurology Fellow at the Department of Neurology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She is a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales.

Selected articles:

Carcel C, Anderson CS. Timing of blood pressure lowering in acute ischaemic stroke. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2015; Aug;17(8):520

Nagel S, Wang X, Carcel C, Robinson T, Lindley RI, Chalmers J, et al. Clinical utility of electronic alberta stroke program early computed tomography score software in the enchanted trial database. Stroke. 2018;49:1407-1411

Carcel C, Wang X, Sato S, Stapf C, Sandset EC, Delcourt C, Arima H, Robinson T, Lavados P, Chalmers J et al: Degree and Timing of Intensive Blood Pressure Lowering on Hematoma Growth in Intracerebral Hemorrhage: Intensive Blood Pressure Reduction in Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage Trial-2 Results. Stroke. 2016;47(6):1651-3.

Carcel C, Wang X, Sandset EC, Delcourt C, Arima H, Lindley R, et al. Sex differences in treatment and outcome after stroke. Pooled analysis including 19,000 participants. Neurology. 2019:10.1212/WNL.0000000000008615

Carcel C, Reeves M. Under-enrollment of women in stroke clinical trials. Stroke.2021;52:452- 457

Christine Kremer is a stroke neurologist and associated professor for Neurology at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund University, Sweden. After completing her studies of medicine in Italy and Germany with specialization and research in Stroke Neurology and neurological intensive care in Germany, she continued as postdoc with special focus on cerebrovascular ultrasound at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. At present she is senior consultant, responsible for acute stroke treatment, and for the neurosonology unit. Besides she is co-chair of the regional stroke network. The focus of her research is acute stroke with special regard to gender differences in stroke treatment and cerebrovascular ultrasound. She is involved in > 10 stroke trials as PI, and has been reviewer for numerous journals including Stroke and The Lancet Neurology.

She is actively involved in the European stroke organization for the women initiative for stroke in Europe (WISE) from the start and served as chair. The network initiated projects focusing both on sex differences in stroke prevention and treatment and on a gender balanced visibility of stroke scientists. She chairs the guidelines working group ”Stroke in women” for the European guidelines stroke in women. Her activities include primarily training and education in acute stroke and neurosonology, research on gender-specific differences stroke treatment and outcome, and academic mentorship of students.

Deidre is a consultant stroke neurologist, head of neurology at the Singapore General Hospital of the National Neuroscience Institute, Associate Professor with Duke-NUS medical school, chair of the Stroke Services Improvement team with the Ministry of Health, World Stroke Organisation board member and committee member for the Singapore National Stroke Association. She is passionate about many aspects of stroke and has found the following projects particularly rewarding

- Improving stroke care on a systems level in Singapore through leading work with the Stroke Service Improvement team

- Understanding stroke patterns in Asian stroke patients better through clinical stroke research

- Encouraging learning about stroke through inter-professional education which often leads to improved inter-professional care coordination

- Innovating stroke care processes with novel digital solutions such as the Stroke Buddy Application, coordinated community care and partnerships

- Supporting and advocating for the stroke community through work with the Singapore National Stroke Association, our local stroke support organization

- Working with regional and global colleagues on various projects through the World Stroke Organisation and other regional collaborations

Dr. Brown is Professor of Neurology and Director of the Vascular Neurology Fellowship at the University of Michigan. She has served as the PI or multiple PI of 10 NIH grants – work that has focused on two main areas: stroke-related health disparities and sleep apnea after stroke. She is currently a multiple PI of Sleep SMART, a large multicenter CPAP trial implemented through StrokeNet. She serves as co-director of the University of Michigan Regional Coordinating Center as part of StrokeNet, and is the co-chair of the StrokeNet Training/Education Core. She has published over 170 peer-reviewed papers, and has served on editorial boards and numerous national committees.

Diana Aguiar de Sousa is a Portuguese Neurologist working at the Stroke Unit, Santa Maria University Hospital, Lisbon. She is also Professor (Auxiliary) at Faculdade de Medicina - Universidade de Lisboa, and clinical investigator at Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon.

Diana de Sousa graduated from the University of Lisbon and completed her preclinical and clinical training at Santa Maria University Hospital, in Lisbon. She received her PhD degree in Neurology (Cerebral Venous Thrombosis) from Faculdade de Medicina - Universidade de Lisboa. She also completed with honours the Clinical Scholars Research Training Certificate Program from Harvard Medical School, and a European Academy of Neurology Research Fellowship in acute stroke at Inselspital Bern, Switzerland. She was awarded with a Young Investigator Award of the European Stroke Organization (ESO) in 2016. Diana de Sousa is currently a member of the steering committee for the Implementation of the Stroke Action Plan for Europe, chair of the ESO Young Stroke Physicians and Researchers (YSPR) Committee and member at large of the Executive Committee of ESO. She is also Editorial Assistant of Stroke (AHA/ASA journal), member of the Editorial Board of the European Stroke Journal and editor of the YSPR section of the ESO blog.

She has authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, including the ESO guidelines on cerebral venous thrombosis. Her primary research interests are implementation of stroke care and cerebral venous thrombosis.

Professor Cadilhac, has a clinical background in nursing and is a health services researcher and NHMRC Senior Research Fellow with over 220 articles. She heads the Translational Public Health and Evaluation Research Division, Stroke and Ageing Research at Monash University, and is the Data Custodian for the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry, Florey Institute. Her skillset includes epidemiology, implementation science and economic evaluation.

Top 5 publications in the last 5 years:

1. Langhorne P, Audebert H, CADILHAC D, Kim J, Lindsay P. Stroke systems of care in highincome countries. The Lancet, October 2020;396:1433-1442. Illustrates her international leadership in improving systems of care for stroke and guiding policy direction.

2. Kim J, Easton D, Zhao H, Coote S, Sookram G, Smith K, Stephenson M, Bernard S, Parsons M, Yan B, Desmond P, Mitchell P, Campbell B, Donnan GA, Davis S, CADILHAC DA. Economic evaluation of the Melbourne Mobile Stroke Unit. International Journal of Stroke online June 14 2020. Example of leadership in the economic assessment of novel interventions to improve stroke care (cites 3, Altmetric: top 5% of all research outputs)

3. CADILHAC DA, Andrew N, et al. Quality of acute care and long-term quality of life and survival: the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry. Stroke. 2017 48:1026–1032. Real-world example the effects of best practice care and long-term quality of life (cites: 38 FWCI:3.26)

4. Thrift AG, ...CADILHAC DA (co-senior author). Global stroke statistics. Int Journal of Stroke. 2017 Jan;12(1), 13-32. Provides a repository of the most current stroke data available by country and illustrates the impact of stroke worldwide (cites: 330 FWCI:8.38)

5. Kilkenny MF, Kim J, Andrew NE, …, Anderson CS, Middleton S, Donnan G, CADILHAC DA. Maximising data value and avoiding data waste: a validation study in stroke research. Med J Aust 2019;210(1):27-31 Provides an example of her leadership in establishing linked data for stroke in Australia (top downloaded paper 2018-19 WILEY publishers, cites: 12 FWCI: 5.28)

Ekatarina Titianova is a Full Professor of Neurology, Head of the Clinic of Functional Diagnostics of Nervous System at the Military Medical Academy – Sofia and a long-term Member of the Faculty Council and a Head of the Department “Neurology, Psychiatry, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Preventive Medicine and Public Health” at the Faculty of Medicine of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She is an Academician of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Royal Serbian Academy, the Public Academy of Science and Education and Culture.

Scientific Publications: Author and co-author of more than 250 publications, including books, practical tools and consensuses.

More important Awards: Merrill Spencer Award 2009 of the ESNCH (2009), Golden Hippocratic Oath of the Balkan Association for History and Philosophy of Medicine (2013), Honorary Plaque of the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense (2016), "Peter Beron" Medal of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts (2017), the National Medical Award for “World Recognition in Medical Science” (2017) and Award for “Founder of Bulgarian Neurosonology School” (2018), Bulgarian Red Cross Honorary Diploma for Humanity (2018), the Greatest

National “Pythagoras” Prize of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science for overall scientific development (2018).

Scientific Societies: Founder and a President of the Bulgarian Society of Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics (since 2005), Member of the Executive Committee of the WFN Neurosonology Research Group (since 2009), Editor-in-Chief of the Journal “Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics” (since 2005), Member of the International Advisory Boards of the Journals “Archivos de Neurociencias” (Mexico), “Neurosonology” (Japan) and ORUEN (since 2016), and Bulgarian coordinator for CME Program of the WFN (since 2000), founder and President of the “Mexico-Bulgaria” I.A.P. Foundation (since 1998).

Research Fields: stroke, cerebrovascular diseases, neurosonology, cerebral hemodynamics, hemorheology, autonomic failure, gait motor control, stroke neurorehabilitation.

Websites: www.neurosonology-bg.com; www.neurosonology.net;

Emmie is a registered nurse who has worked in various positions within the National Health Service (UK) including being a Stroke Specialist Nurse and Stroke Unit Ward Manager for over 16 years. She was involved and contributed to the development of the London Stroke Nurse Competency Workbook which is used to train and assess stroke nurses across London. Employed in Higher Education since 2018, she is a member of the World Stroke Organisation, African Stroke Organisation and UK Stroke Nursing Forum. She is a co-founder of the newly formed stroke support organisation in Malawi, whose aim is to advocate for improved stroke care in the country. Emmie is also part of the UK-Malawi stroke partnership, a group of enthusiastic stroke experts who are developing the first ever stroke unit in Blantyre, Malawi.

Her research interests focus on stroke care, in particular acute stroke nursing and the care provided to stroke survivors and their family caregivers following hospital discharge. She was awarded a PhD from Edge Hill University in April 2020 for her innovate work on the development of the Carers' Alert Thermometer for Stroke (CAT-S), a screening tool that can be used to identify and support the needs of family caregivers of stroke survivors living at home.

Eva Rocha, MD, PhD, is a Neurologist specialized in cerebrovascular diseases, neurointensive care and transcranial Doppler at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP)

She is a Research Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Professor of Neurology at Centro Universitário São Camilo.

Staff in the neuro-ICU of Hospital São Paulo - UNIFESP

Eva Rocha, MD, PhD. twitter: @EvaRochaMD

Feroza Motara is Adj. Professor and Academic Head Division Emergency Medicine, Department Family Medicine and Primary Care, Faculty Health Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

She has a keen interest on the impact that Point of Care has had on Emergency Medicine and is supervising registrar research in the Division of Emergency Medicine related to point of care in the emergency department. She has set up the first point of care mini-laboratory in an emergency department, in South Africa. As a result of using point of care blood investigations in the unit, patients were diagnosed in real time, save on costs, refer appropriately and make management decisions at the patient’s bedside

Fiona Ellery is currently Clinical Governance Advisor at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne, Australia. Her work includes:

• Member of Clinical Governance Committee and Occupational Health and Safety Committee

• Development and production of organisational trials governance processes

• Development of organisational trial registry (REDCap), website, educational and training resources

• Development of business plan for Florey REDCap platform

Her professional background is in nursing (LaTrobe University Lincoln School of Health Sciences).

Publications

Bernhardt, J., Churilov, L., Ellery, F., Collier, J., Chamberlain, J., Langhorne, P., ... & Donnan, G. (2016). Prespecified dose-response analysis for a very early rehabilitation trial (AVERT). Neurology, 86(23), 2138-2145.

Godecke, E., Armstrong, E., Middleton, S., Ciccone, N., Rai, T., Holland, A., ... & Hankey, G. (2017). Therapy fidelity and trial progress in the Very Early Rehabilitation in SpEech (VERSE) trial. In Annual Scientific Meeting of the Stroke Society of Australasia. Sage Journals.

Godecke, E., Armstrong, E., ., Rai, T., Middleton, S., Ciccone, N., Whitworth, A., ... & Cadilhac, D. (2016). A randomized controlled trial of very early rehabilitation in speech after stroke. International Journal of Stroke.

Bernhardt, J., Langhorne, L., Lindley, R. I., Thrift, A. G., Ellery, F., Collier, J. M., ... & Donnan, G. A. (2016). A Very Early Rehabilitation Trial (AVERT): Outcome at 12 Months. Cerebrovascular Diseases, 42, 3.

A UK accredited health and medical trainer, with a master’s degree in Advanced Neuroscience Practice. Gloria is a Neuroscience Nurse with a specialist interest in stroke care, Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) and management.

Stroke Care International, a UK registered Charity, was founded by Gloria Ekeng.

A Clinical Nurse Specialist for TIA/Stroke at Kings College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London for five years Gloria has over 12 years nursing practice experience in the UK. A member of the Royal College of Nursing (UK), an independent Nurse prescriber, World Stroke organisation, executive board of Directors, British Neuroscience Association and Neuroscience Nursing Forum member.
Recently, Board of Directors, World Stroke Organisation, representing Sub-Saharan Africa

At Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust she piloted the Nurse-led fast track Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) assessment and management clinic. Gloria is also the Director of Winnex Healthcare Group Limited, which provides domiciliary care services across south east England with a specialism in stroke care.

Recently Gloria has been sharing her expertise on stroke management through conferences, seminars, training courses and articles and created the K4All Stroke Awareness programme which recently attracted funding to deliver a series of successful community based workshops in South London and earned a position on the Bexley stroke round table.

Professor Dewey is Clinical Director of the Department of Neurosciences at Eastern Health and Professor, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Helen is dual trained in neurology and rehabilitation medicine and has been active in multidisciplinary stroke care and research for more than 30 years. She has particular interests in acute stroke care and research related to organisation of stroke services, early rehabilitation and the epidemiology and costs of stroke. Helen was the co-chair of the Steering Committee for the AVERT project, the largest ever randomised controlled trial in the field of stroke rehabilitation. She is a member of the Management Committee for the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR) and an investigator for many stroke clinical trials.

Helen is a Past President of the Stroke Society of Australasia.

Professor Joanna Wardlaw, CBE, MB ChB, MD, FRCR, FRCP, FRSE, FMedSci, is Professor of Applied Neuroimaging at the University of Edinburgh and Consultant Neuroradiologist, NHS Lothian.

She has worked for many years to understand the brain and its blood supply, and on treatments to improve blood flow to the brain, including thrombolytic drugs that are now used routinely to treat stroke. She now focuses on the much more complicated problem of ‘small vessel disease’, which as well as being a common cause of stroke, is also a common cause of dementia and physical frailty as people get older. She has been instrumental in advancing understanding of the causes of small vessel disease and is now testing possible treatments in clinical trials. She has set up national research imaging facilities, co-ordinated national and international research networks, and advanced stroke care worldwide. She holds a Foundation Chair in the UK Dementia Research Institute.

She has published over 500 peer-reviewed papers, H index Google Scholar 111, >45000 citations, Web of Science H index 85, 37000 citations and is a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2018 and 2019. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences, she was the first woman to be awarded the American Heart Association’s Feinberg Award for Clinical Advances in Stroke in 2018 and one of a very few non-USA awardees ever, was one of 35 Women in Medicine recognized by the UK Royal Medical Colleges in 2017-18 and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to Medicine and Neuroscience in 2016. Other recent recognition includes the European Stroke Organisation President’s Award (2017) and the Karolinska Stroke Award (2018).

Amongst various funders, her current research is funded by the European Union, the UK Medical Research Council, the Fondation Leducq, the UK Stroke Association, Alzheimer’s Society and the British Heart Foundation.

Julia Ferrari, MD, is Consultant of the Stroke Unit, Hospital Barmherzige Brueder, Vienna, Austria. She received the Venia legendi (Habilitation) in 2015.

She was Co-Investigator in the following clinical trials: MATCH-trial, ARTIST-MRI-YM872-trial, PREVAIL-trial, PERFORM-trial, ROCKET-trial, IST-3 trial, NAVIGATE ESUS trial and TEMPO 2 trial. She is the Principle Investigator in PACIFIC trial.

Professor Bernhardt has worked with stroke patients for over 30 years. She co-heads the Stroke Theme at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Australia, leading a research team developing and testing interventions to improve stroke recovery. She is Director, National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) Centre of Research Excellence in Stroke Recovery, and a world leader of multi-country rehabilitation trials (eg AVERT, AVERT DOSE). She led two international Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtables that set new research standards, culminating in development of the new International Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Alliance (ISRRA) in 2020. Julie is a strong advocate for Women in Science.

Dr Kate Hayward is a Senior Research Fellow in Stroke Recovery and Dame Kate Campbell Fellow in the Department of Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne. Kate also has an appointment in the Stroke Theme at The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and Department of Medicine (RMH) at the University of Melbourne. Kate leads the REPAIR research group (Recovery, Enrichment and Plasticity to promote Activity In neuroRehabilitation), which uses early phase clinical trial designs to test ‘when’ is the ideal time to start therapy after stroke, ‘how much’ therapy to provide, and ‘who’ benefits most from therapy. She was a member of the international Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtables that produced new global recovery science recommendations, and is a member of the International Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Alliance (ISRRA). Kate is a rehabilitation guideline review member of the Stroke Foundation of Australia living guideline taskforce.

Katie Gallacher, PhD, is a Stroke Association Princess Margaret Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, UK. She is a GP Partner at the Grantley Medical Practice, Shawlands.

Her research interests are Stroke from a primary care perspective; treatment burden; minimally disruptive medicine and person-centred care.

Her latest peer-reviewed publications:

Jani, B. D. , McQueenie, R., Nicholl, B. I. , Field, R. , Hanlon, P. , Gallacher, K. I. , Mair, F. S. and Lewsey, J. (2021) Association between patterns of alcohol consumption (beverage type, frequency and consumption with food) and risk of adverse health outcomes: a prospective cohort study. BMC Medicine, 19, 8. (doi: 10.1186/s12916-020-01878-2) (PMID:33430840) (PMCID:PMC7802201)

Hanlon P, Quinn TJ, Gallacher KI, Myint PK,4, Jani BD, Nicholl BI, Lowrie R, Soiza RL, Neal SR, Lee D, Mair FS. (2019) Assessing risks of polypharmacy involving medications with anticholinergic properties. Annals of Family Medicine, 18(2), pp. 148-155. (doi: 10.1370/afm.2501) (PMID:32152019) (PMCID:PMC7062487)

Kyle, J., Skleparis, D. , Mair, F. S. and Gallacher, K. I. (2020) What helps and hinders the provision of healthcare that minimises treatment burden and maximises patient capacity? A qualitative study of stroke health professional perspectives. BMJ Open, 10(3), e034113. (doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034113) (PMID:32193265)

Gallacher, K. , Quinn, T. J. , Kidd, L. , Eton, D. T., Elliot, J., Johnston, N., Erwin, P. and Mair, F. (2019) A systematic review of patient-reported measures of treatment burden in stroke. BMJ Open, 9(9), e029258. (doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029258) (PMID:31533946)

Dr. Carrie Stewart, Dr. Katie Gallacher, Mr Athagran Nakham, Dr. Moira Cruickshank, Dr. Rumana Newlands, Professor Christine Bond, Professor Phyo Kyaw Myint, Dr. Debi Bhattacharya and Professor Frances S Mair. (2019) Medicine Barriers and facilitators to reducing anticholinergic burden from the perspectives of patients, their carers, and healthcare professionals: A protocol for qualitative evidence synthesis. Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine 12(3), pp. 227-231.

Dr. Lili Song MD PhD, is the Head of Stroke division, senior research fellow at The George Institute for Global Health (TGI) at Peking University Health Science Center (GI China), and senior lecturer at Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. She has been a neurologist for 15 years and has clinical research experience for 8 years. She has worked in several TGI stroke clinical trials (ENCHANTED, INTERACT, SAVE, HeadPost, TRIDENT, BEYOND 7, etc), with Professor Craig Anderson, providing academic input as well as day-to-day operational direction. She joined in George China from 2016 and currently manages several large scale clinical trials including INTERACT3, INTERACT4, ENCHANTED2 and ASPIRING CHINA - as the main research fellow and the global project lead. She holds several small seed grants from TGI and World Heart Foundation and she has successfully awarded a MRC joint funding as CIB in 2019. She is a reviewer for several high-ranking clinical journals including Stroke, Cerebrovascular Diseases and Stroke, etc. She has been selected one of 2018 Emerging Leaders by the World Heart Foundation. Now she is co-supervisor for 2 PhD students.

Dr Catanese is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at McMaster University and a Stroke neurologist and physician lead for hyperacute stroke services at Hamilton Health Sciences.

She completed her residency in Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, followed by fellowship training in Vascular Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr Catanese has participated in multiple international trials testing novel therapies in acute ischemic stroke patients. She is leading quality assurance studies that evaluate the impact of acute CT perfusion on systems of care in the expanded therapeutic window. As part of her work in the Central-South Region of Ontario, she is leading a project to test different transfer process strategies for EVT patients throughout the region using geospatial mapping.

More recently, she is leading the National Cerebrovascular and COVID-19 Study looking into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stroke epidemiology and systems of care in Canada.

Maramelia Miranda Alves, MD, is Staff neurologist at Stroke Service, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, UNIFESP, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Medical school at Universidade Federal da Paraíba / UFPB (1996), Neurology Residency Training, Post-Graduation in Neuroradiology (2002) and Fellowship in Stroke, Neurocritical Care and Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound at Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo / UNIFESP 2003-2007; Master's in Neurology at Universidade Federal de São Paulo (2010).

Marion Walker is Emeritus Professor of Stroke Rehabilitation at the University of Nottingham, England. She is an occupational therapist by professional background and has played a leading role in developing a research culture within her own profession.

Marion has a strong research portfolio covering a wide area of local, national and international research projects. She is passionate about supporting the next generation of stroke rehabilitation researchers and a strong advocate of patient partnership. She is also executive coach with a specific interest in coaching women to achieve their career ambitions.

She is an Emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator and was awarded an MBE in the Queens New Year Honours list 2012 for her service to stroke rehabilitation and stroke survivors.

References:

https://journals.sagepub.com/page/wso/srrr

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1747493019851287

Dr. Michelle Nelson is a Scientist in the Collaboratory for Research and Innovation in the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI), an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and the Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer for March of Dimes Canada (MODC). Michelle leads international research teams focused on stroke rehabilitation and community reintegration. Having leadership roles in both research and practice environments creates opportunities for practice informed research, and leverages these insights to advance the design and implementation of evidence informed transitions and community reintegration services. She sits on several national and international committees, and was recently elected to the executive team of the World Stroke Organization as VP, SSO.

I am a Consultant for Neurology and Stroke and Deputy Head of the Neurovascular Outpatients Clinics at the University of Bern/Switzerland. I studied and trained as a Neurologist and Strokologist in Bern/Switzerland, Oxford/UK and Krems/A. My clinical and research interest focuses on stroke (particularly on large vessel occlusions, stroke scales, emergency triage, acute therapy, stroke aetiology, atherosclerosis in different vascular beds, secondary prevention). I have published around 100 publications, of which the majority are original contributions in international high-ranking journals. I have international clinical trial experience and am a Principal Investigator of several monocentric studies. I am a peer reviewer of several international journals and Editorial Board Member for BMC Neurology. My research has been awarded by multiple awards (e.g. ESO, Swiss Stroke Society) and has been supported by several grants (e.g. Swiss National Science Foundation). I am a member of different professional associations (e.g. WSO, ESO Fellow, ESO Board of Directors, ESO education committee, WISE). I am a Substitute Member of the European IRENE-COST (Implementation Research Network in Stroke Care Quality-Cooperation in Science&Technology) Action Management Committee. I am a member of the evaluation committee of grants for trainees and equality for protected research time at the University of Bern. I am co-organiser of the ESO-ESMINT-ESNR Stroke Winter School and of ESO-ESO-department-to-department visits at the University of Bern. I am teaching at the University of Bern (clinical skills training, problem based learning, neurosonography). My current priorities are the implementation of the ESO European Stroke Action Plan and promotion of junior strokologists – especially those from middle- and low-middle-income countries and gender equity.

Niki is Professor of Stroke Medicine at Nottingham University, and also an Honorary Consultant Physician in Stroke Medicine for Nottingham University Hospitals Trust. Her research interests include developing treatment for haemorrhagic stroke, treatments to improve recovery after stroke and quality of life after stroke. Nikola is Chief Investigator of TICH-3 a phase 3 international multi-centre RCT testing tranexamic acid in intracerebral haemorrhage and DASH testing desmopressin.

Patrice Lindsay is currently the Director of Health Systems at the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Canada. She leads strategic directions for evidence informed systems change across the care continuum for designing and delivering services for individuals with a range of heart conditions, stroke and vascular cognitive impairment. She leads development of the Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations clinical guidelines, quality and performance monitoring, and the active and meaningful inclusion of people with lived experience in these activities. Dr. Lindsay is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for her efforts to improve stroke care and outcomes in Canada and internationally. She has a degree in nursing from the University of Western Ontario and completed her PhD in Health Services Research, Evaluation and Outcomes at the University of Toronto, and sits on several national and international advisory committees and research collaborations.

Patty Francis, MD, is a Neurology Consultant in Private Practice, Umhlanga Hospital, Durban, South Africa.

General Neurology plus Special Interest: Acute Stroke Program.

She is the president of Neurology Association of South Africa. In 2018 she was awarded the Angels Spirit of Excellence award for acute stroke care.

Dr. Muñoz Venturelli is a clinician researcher with clinical experience in neurology, specialising in stroke and neurosonology. Her main research topics include acute stroke treatment and hospital organization of stroke care, head position in stroke and cervical artery dissection. She has also worked in management of international clinical trials and has been involved in The George Institute for Global Health research projects. She leads academic international research projects in Latin America, within a large network of investigators mainly in stroke. Dr. Muñoz Venturelli has been invited to participate in government scientific research experts groups to inform national decisions about COVID-19 treatment and vaccination projects.

She is Head of Research, Clinical Research Center in partnership with The George Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile (since March 2018) and Associate Research Professor, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile.

Pooja Khatri, MD, is the director of the Acute Stroke Program for the University of Cincinnati Stroke Team and a professor of neurology at the UC College of Medicine.

She was awarded an NIH Career Development Award in 2006 and received the American Heart Association (AHA) Robert G. Siekert Young Investigator Award in 2008. She completed a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from the Harvard University School of Public Health in 2011.

Khatri is a recognized expert in acute stroke, the research of its treatments, clinical trial design/implementation and stroke systems of care. She participates in the leadership of several international multicenter clinical trials and leads UC’s National Institutes of Health NEXT Network clinical site for pilot trials of neurosciences. She has been a standing member of the FDA Peripheral and Central Nervous System (PCNS) Drug Advisory Panel and has authored numerous manuscripts, books and clinical guidelines. She is a board member of the World Stroke Organization, currently holds the position of Secretary in the Executive Committee.

Rita Vanmala Krishnamurthi is Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.

She completed her PhD in Medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 2005.

Since 2019, Rita is the Deputy Director, National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences, (NISAN), Auckland University of Technology, Auckland.

Rita is currently involved in a number of research projects, including STroke Epidemiology. She is a co-director of the ARCOS-studies as well as a member of the Global Burden of Disease Project Stroke expert panel. She is currently an AI and coordinator of several projects including the Aging Well National Science Challenge-funded randomised clinical trial to test the effectiveness of Health and Wellness Coaching, the Brain Research New Zealand Centre for Research Excellence-funded Effectiveness of the stroke Riskometer Pro for improving stroke awareness and modifiable behaviour for stroke prevention, the Brain CoRE-funded Survey of Stroke and Dementia awareness in the community, and the RIBURST study, a mobile-app based international study on stroke prevention. She is a Research Leader in the LIving with Dementia in Aoteraroa study. She was PI of the Subarachnoid Haemorrhage Outcomes in the Community Project and Primary Prevention of Stroke in the Community study.

Rita Melifonwu is a stroke nurse turned social entrepreneur. She is the founder of Stroke Action, a Stroke Support Organization that is the outcome of her UK Department of Health’s Mary Seacole Nursing Leadership Award action research study: developing nurses’ role in evidence-based stroke care. Rita won the World Stroke Day Award in 2015, and, was last year named a Leading Social Entrepreneur by Ashoka Foundation because.

Through her work, she influences policy change in stroke care, and, is a member of the NCD Technical Working Group, Federal Ministry of Health Nigeria.

Her prime interests include stroke advocacy for policy change; grassroots stroke awareness and prevention; rehabilitation and psychosocial support after stroke. Her recent innovations include the development of unemployed stroke survivors of working age as Stroke Entrepreneurs.

Rita is a member of the Board of Directors of the WSO, and, engages with key stakeholders to advance stroke research capacity within Stroke Support Organizations: she is a member of OSCAIL (Organized Stroke Care Across Income Levels); WHO Stroke Development Group for a Package of Rehabilitation Interventions; African Stroke Organization (ASO); and, ISRRA (International Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery Alliance).

Sandy Middleton is a Professor of Nursing and Director of the Nursing Research Institute. Professor Middleton has a particular interest in stroke and implementation research and has been successful in obtaining grants totalling over $44.8 million. She was the lead investigator on the landmark NHMRC-funded QASC cluster trial demonstrating decreased death and dependency following implementation of nurse-initiated protocols to manage fever, hyperglycaemia and swallowing post-stroke, winning multiple national and international awards. These protocols are currently being translated into hospitals in 20 European countries. Professor Middleton is a Ministerial appointment to the NHMRC Health Translation Advisory Committee (HTAC) and sits on the board of directors for the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and the Clinical Excellence Commission. She is Director of the Sydney Partnership for Health Education, Research and Enterprise (SPHERE) Implementation Science platform; Director of the SPHERE Nursing and Midwifery Implementation Science Academy; and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry.

References:

Ouyang M, Bowden E, Arima H, Lavados PM, Billot L, Hackett ML, Olavarria VV, Muñoz-Venturelli P, Song L, Rogers K, Middleton S, Pontes-Neto OM, Lee TH, Watkins C, Robinson T, Anderson C on behalf of the HeadPoST investigators. Dysphagia screening and risks of pneumonia and adverse outcomes after acute stroke: an international multicentre study. International Journal of Stroke.

Middleton S, Dale S, Cheung W, Cadilhac D, Grimshaw J, Levi C, McInnes E, Considine J, McElduff P, Gerraty R, Craig L, Schadewaldt V, Fitzgerald M, Quinn C, Cadigan G, Denisenko S, Longworth M, Ward J, D’Este C. Nurse-initiated acute stroke care in Emergency Departments: Results from the T3 implementation cluster randomised controlled trial. Stroke 2019; 50: 1346-1355.

Kilkenny M, Kim J, Andrew N, et al. Maximising data value and avoiding data waste: a validation study in stroke research. Medical Journal of Australia 2019; 210 (1): 27-31

View NRI Projects (Australian Catholic University)

Sarah Belson
International Development Manager
World Stroke Organization
BA Hons Sociology, MSc International Development Studies

Sarah has worked with the WSO for nearly 6 years. She leads the stroke support organization development programme. Sarah facilitates knowledge exchange, networking and skills development for the WSO’s stroke support organization membership.

Sarah has 25 years’ experience working in community development, and health and social care in the UK and internationally, and has worked in countries including Sudan, Indonesia, Myanmar and China.

In the health sector, Sarah has previously supported community responses to HIV prevention and care, the implementation of the UNICEF Facts for Life programme and youth mental health and well-being programmes.

At the WSO, Sarah has helped to grow the stroke support organization membership, and in particular has focused on outreach to stroke advocates in sub Saharan Africa and South East Asia. Sarah was involved in the development of WSO’s Advocacy Toolkit and the online platform for WSO members, Stroke Connector.

References:

-Gubitz G, Saini M, Belson S, Sahathevan R, Sandercock P. How can the World Stroke Organization (WSO) optimize education in stroke medicine around the world? Report of the 2018 WSO Global Stroke Stakeholder Workshop. Int J Stroke. 2019 Oct;14(8):803-805. doi: 10.1177/1747493019874726. Epub 2019 Sep 10. PMID: 31506027.

-SSO Global Mapping Report

Serefnur Ozturk is Professor of Neurology and Head of The Neurology, Department, Stroke Center. She is the Vice Dean of Faculty of Medicine (1996-2020) Konya- Turkey.

Areas of interest: Cerebrovascular diseases, Neurointensive care, History of neurology, Neurology education.

Professor Ozturk is President of The Turkish Neurological Society, Chair of the WFN Migrant Neurology Specialty Group, member of the WSO Global Policy Committee and active EAN member (core CoVID-19 Task Force, Quality Assurance Committee, Rare diseases Panel, Coma Panel).

She is the PI of the EAN ENERGY COVID-19 Registry, PERFORM Study, FACT and ENSEMBLE trial and National Coordinator of the Turkish COVID-19 Registry, ENOS TRIAL, TICH-2 and NAVIGATE –ESUS.

Sharon joined Stroke Foundation as Chief Executive Officer in 2016. Having spent her career in the health sector, Sharon has a wealth of experience and expertise that will take the Stroke Foundation forward on the next phase of its journey.

Sharon is an experienced communicator, with a background in management, community engagement, culture transformation, health promotion, fundraising and the volunteer service. Originally trained as a registered nurse, Sharon has worked in Australia and the UK with a range of government statutory authorities and not-for-profit organisations.

Sharon holds a Masters of Business Administration from Cranfield University and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Acutely aware of the devastating impact that a stroke can have on survivors and their family members, Sharon is passionate about bringing government, health professionals and the broader community together to fight this terrible disease. Sharon aims to make a real difference by increasing awareness of stroke and support for it as a major health priority.

Sheila Martins is Founder and President of Brazilian Stroke Network, Neurology Professor of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Coordinator of Stroke Program at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (public University Hospital), Chief of Neurology and Neurosurgery Service at Hospital Moinhos de Vento (private Hospital affiliate to Johns Hopkins Institute), completing her PhD in stroke neurology in 2008 in Universidade Federal de São Paulo.

In 2008, as advisor of the Ministry of Health, she started the organization of the National Stroke Program. She collaborated to create the National Stroke Policy of the Ministry of Health (April 2012) and now she is working for the establishment of the Policy, building stroke units and organizing stroke systems around the country. Since 2009, she is the coordinator of the World Stroke Campaign in Brazil. Sheila Martins is the President-Elect of the World Stroke Organization (WSO). She is member of the WSO Executive Board and member of the Guidelines & Quality, Research and World Stroke Campaign Committee.

References:

Certification of stroke centers in LATAM: http://www.globalstrokealliance.com/en/certification/

RESILIENT:

S.Martins et al. Thrombectomy for Stroke in the Public Health Care System of Brazil N Engl J Med 2020; 382:2316-2326
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2000120

Lindsay MP, Norrving B, Sacco RL, Brainin M, Hacke W, Martins S, Pandian J, Feigin V.World Stroke Organization: Global Stroke Fact Sheet 2019

S.Martins et al. Past, Present, and Future of Stroke in Middle-Income Countries: The Brazilian Experience https://doi.org/10.1111/ijs.12062

I am currently the Founding Director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases where we are combining clinical care and clinical research with biological and innovative research, population neuroscience, public health. I have been an investigator at the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) since 1998, and I currently lead the FHS clinical neurology and neurogenetics cores. I am PI on 10 NIH funded grants, 5 R01 grants that fund the collection of stroke, MRI, amyloid and tau PET, MCI, VCID and AD dementia and sensory-motor data and the brain bank effort at FHS as well as the San Antonio Heart Mind Study (SAHMS), one studying APOE2 biology and 4 consortial grants (2U01, an R01, and the MarkVCID UH2/UH3 NS100605 on which I am the Contact PI, serve on the Executive and Clinical Committees). I established, partially fund and lead the neurology working group within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, the Alzheimer Disease Sequencing Proejct (ADSP), the Cross Cohorts Consortium (CCC) and the Transomics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. I have served on the Steering Committee of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium. I am a m-PI on a supplement to ascertain Genomics of the Aging Brain (GOBS) in the San Antonio Family Heart Study (Hispanic) cohort (AG058464). I am a Tier 2 site PI, serve on the Steering and Cognitive outcomes working groups for DISCOVERY (U19 NS115338) and lead one of 10 sites, serve on the Leadership and Clinical assessment groups for DIVERSE VCID (U19 NS120384).

As a board-certified neurologist with subspeciality training in behavioral and geriatric neurology I run a dementia clinic, ran a general neurology resident supervision clinic for 12+ years and cover inpatient, emergency, consult and critical care services for 4-8 weeks each year. I serve on the Editorial board for Stroke, have chaired a NIH Study Section. I have over 400 publications.

I have mentored over 45 clinician scientists in the past 10 years. My mentees have publications in leading journals (NEJM, JAMA, Nature Genetics) and have received national (Fulbright, American Heart Association, American Academy of Neurology, Alzheimer Association, K23, K99, R03, R01) and international (France, Australia, Ireland) grants during their training period. They have gone on to faculty positions 4 mentees having become full Professors within 5 years of completing their fellowship. My overarching interests are in identifying the biological and molecular pathways, both vascular and neurodegenerative that lead to clinical dementia, identifying genetic, blood-based, clinical and imaging early biomarkers that determine risk and parse disease heterogeneity, to develop, test and implement more effective, personalized (targeted) preventive and therapeutic interventions.

Valeria Caso is a 1st level Medical Director, Neurologist, currently employed in the Neurology and Stroke Unit wards of S. Maria della Misericordia Hospital in Perugia.

In 2003 she obtained a PhD in Cerebrovascular Diseases from the University of Perugia. She also participated in the ESO (European Stroke Organization) working group for the drafting of the first European guidelines for the ‘treatment of stroke in the acute phase’.

Since 2003 she actively deals with research on women and cerebrovascular diseases, publishing various scientific articles on gender differences in this pathology. In 2014 she founded the WISE (Women Initiative for Stroke in Europe) group. In 2014 she was elected president of ESO (first woman to fill this role), with the programmatic mission to increase female representation in the key positions of related scientific societies, as speakers and heads of scientific commissions. Also in 2014 she obtained the national scientific qualification as Associate Professor, and in 2017 the one of Full Professor.

Valeria Caso is associate editor of the ‘Neurological Sciences’ publication and member of editorial boards of numerous scientific journals, such as the ‘International Stroke Journal’ and the ‘European Stroke Journal’. Since 2020, Valeria is a member of the WSA Leadership Group.

References:

Interview: Women's contribution to stroke research & stroke care

- Women Initiative for Stroke in Europe Group

- Prestige AF project

-Zedde M, Pezzella FR, Paciaroni M, Corea F, Reale N, Toni D, Caso V. Stroke care in Italy: An overview of strategies to manage acute stroke in COVID-19 time. Eur Stroke J. 2020

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31984232/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31623547/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31236480/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30571452/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30516646/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29914709/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28946830/

Professor Vida Demarin, MD, Ph.D., specialist in neuropsychiatry graduated from School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia.

She was Head of the Department of Neurology at University Hospital Centre in Zagreb and from 2015. she is director of the International Institute for Brain Health.

She authored numerous papers in national and international journals, several chapters in books and textbooks, organized and participated in numerous symposia, conferences and congresses. She is a founder and one of the directors of Summer Stroke School, “Healthy Lifestyle and Prevention of Stroke and Other Brain Impairments” within the Academic Program of Interuniversity Centre in Dubrovnik and president of traditional Mind & Brain INPC in Pula.

She is a member of numerous national and international professional societies and she serves on various scientific Advisory, Editorial and Review Boards.

Aasiah Solanke (Nigeria)

Ah Hyun Cho (South Korea)

Amy Edmunds (USA)

Anita Arsovska (North Mazedonia)

Anna Czlonkowska (Poland)

Anna Ranta (New Zealand)

Avril Drummond (UK)

Bharti Manwani (USA)

Bojana Zvan (Slovenia)

Brenda Booth (Australia)

Charlotte Cordonnier (France)

Cheryl Bushnell (USA)

Cheryl Carcel (Australia)

Christine Kremer (Sweden)

Deidre De Silva (Singapore)

Devin Brown (USA)

Diana Aguiar de Sousa (Portugal)

Dominique Cadilhac (Australia)

Ekatarina Titianova (Bulgaria)

Emmie Malewezi (UK)

Eva Rocha (Brazil)

Feroza Motara (South Africa)

Fiona Ellery (Australia)

Gloria Ekeng (UK)

Helen Dewey (Australia)

Joanna Wardlaw (UK)

Julia Ferrari (Austria)

Julie Bernhardt (Australia)

Kate Hayward (Australia)

Katie Gallacher (UK)

Lily Song (China)

Luciana Catanese (Canada)

Maramelia Miranda Alves (Brazil)

Marion Walker (UK)

Michelle Nelson (Canada)

Miriam Heldner (Switzerland)

Nikola Sprigg (UK)

Patrice Líndsay (Canada)

Patty Francis (South Africa)

Paula Muñoz Venturelli (Chile)

Pooja Khatri (USA)

Rita Krishnamurthi (New Zealand)

Rita Melifonwu (Nigeria)

Sandy Middleton (Australia)

Sarah Belson

Serefnur Ozturk (Turkey)

Sharon McGowan (Australia)

Sheila Martins (Brazil)

Sudha Seshadri (USA)

Valeria Caso (Italy)

Vida Demarin (Croatia)

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