Beyond the achievements we highlight in this newsletter, we share these announcements:
Mount Sinai Neurosurgery ranks No. 1 in National Institutes of Health funding in New York State ($7.3 million) and No. 10 in the nation.
Physician-scientist Fanny Elahi, MD, PhD, with an $8 million grant from DataPhilanthropy, will establish and lead a first-of-its-kind translational center dedicated to the development of treatments for cerebral small vessel diseases for successful aging across the lifespan.
Our Neurosurgery Skull Base Program, renowned for excellence in the treatment of complex brain, pituitary, and skull base disorders, is now under the direction of internationally recognized skull base surgeon Raj K. Shrivastava, MD. The program is further elevated by the addition of Theodore H. Schwartz, MD, a pioneer and world leader in endoscopic and minimally invasive approaches to brain and pituitary tumors.
Physician-scientist Bridget Mueller, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Director of Research for Mount Sinai’s David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Center for Headache Treatment and Translational Research, received a $7.5 million gift to support patient-oriented clinical research in migraine. The research will advance autonomic nervous system testing and neuroimaging to identify distinct migraine subtypes and develop targeted neuromodulatory treatments in collaboration with The Friedman Brain Institute.
Christopher P. Kellner, MD, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, was appointed Chair of the AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section and named Director of the Cerebrovascular Center for the Mount Sinai Health System, recognizing his national leadership in cerebrovascular neurosurgery, clinical trial innovation, and stroke care.
Fred D. Lublin, MD, the Saunders Family Professor of Neurology and Director of Mount Sinai’s Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis, received the June Halper Visionary Award presented by the 2025 Giants of Multiple Sclerosis® recognition program. The award, which is given in partnership with the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers, honors a trailblazer in multiple sclerosis care.
Mount Sinai BioDesign is driving the next phase of innovation through the Comprehensive Center for Surgical Innovation. Supported by an $11.6 million grant from the New York City Economic Development Corporation to transform the future of surgery, advance high-quality care, and fuel economic growth in New York City, the center is scheduled to open in the summer of 2026.
The Department of Neurology launched the GUIDE (Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience) Model, a federal program aimed at advancing coordinated care to support people with dementia and their caregivers.
Mount Sinai’s Clinical Neurosciences Center opened in 2025, bringing together teams in functional and epilepsy neurosurgery, neurology, psychiatry, and neuroscience research. A new epilepsy monitoring unit was also established nearby to create a more integrated experience for patients.
We want to acknowledge Barbara G. Vickrey, MD, MPH, who stepped down as Mount Sinai Health System Chair of Neurology at the end of 2025 after a decade of extraordinary leadership. She remains at Mount Sinai as the Henry P. and Georgette Goldschmidt Professor of Neurology. A search for her successor is currently underway.
Featured
Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD
Interim Chair of Neurology, Anne and Joel Ehrenkrantz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Mount Sinai Health System
Joshua B. Bederson, MD
Leonard I. Malis, MD/Corinne and Joseph Graber Professor of Neurosurgery, and Chair, Department of Neurosurgery, Mount Sinai Health System