Dec 8, 2024

Gretchen Birbeck, MD, MPH, DTMH

2024 J. Kiffin Penry Award for Excellence in Epilepsy Care, Presented during the 2024 Hot Topics Symposium at the 2024 AES Annual Meeting

Meet the 2024 AES Award Recipients
gretchen birbek

 

Gretchen Birbeck, Rykenboer Professor of Neurology at the University of Rochester, has served as Chikankata Epilepsy Care Team Director in Mazabuka, Zambia since 2002 and is a Consultant for the University Teaching Hospitals in Lusaka, Zambia. Her work in sub-Saharan Africa began as a University of Chicago medical student in rural Zambia. Caring for the devastating dual burdens of acute symptomatic malarial seizures and severe burns from untreated epilepsy set the foundation for her lifelong commitment to epilepsy care, education, and research. 

 

In addition to her leadership role in epilepsy care in Zambia’s rural Southern Province, she has developed and implemented epilepsy care materials appropriate for non-physician healthcare workers including the World Health Organization’s first edition Mental Health Gap Action Programme and Where There is No Neurologist funded by Lancet.

She helped establish EEG Labs in tertiary care centers in Zambia and Malawi, rural hospitals in regions with high epilepsy burden and the private sector, and provides support as an EEG reader to many of these facilities on an ongoing basis.  Her research has received 25 years of continuous support from the US National Institutes of Health and includes neuroprotective clinical trials aimed at reducing the burden of post-malaria epilepsy. 

 

About the J. Kiffin Penry Award for Excellence in Epilepsy Care

Established in 1997 in honor of Dr. Penry’s lifelong focus on advancing epilepsy care and awareness, this award recognizes individuals (members or non-members) whose work in the clinical care of patients, scholarly/educational activities, and mentorship have had a major impact on improving the quality of life for persons with epilepsy. The award was initially funded with a gift from Abbott Laboratories and has been continually supported through the J. KiffinPenry Fund of the American Epilepsy Society.