Archives: Experts

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Interviews from Krystal L. Culler, DBH, MA

Strategies to Boost Brain Health

Paul G. Mathew, MD, DNBPAS, FAAN, FAHS completed his neurology residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, and then completed a fellowship in headache medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  He is board certified in neurology and headache medicine.  He is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and holds positions at three HMS affiliated institutions.  He has clinical appointments at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates/Atrius Health, as well as a teaching appointment at the Cambridge Health Alliance.  In addition to conventional headache treatments, Dr. Mathew performs Botox injections, trigger point injections, and nerve blocks.

He has written over 90 publications, taught countless medical trainees and has presented at both national and international conferences.  Dr. Mathew has served as a peer reviewer for multiple journals and is the Co-Chief Medical Editor of the journal Practical Neurology. He is the current Chair of the American Headache Society Procedural Special Interest Section, Vice-Chair of the Headache and Facial Pain Section of the America Academy of Neurology, a Member of the Board of the Directors of the National Headache Foundation, and an Executive Board Member of the Indian Medical Association of New England.

Dr. Mathew also applies his passion and expertise to the role of advocate, and has participated in multiple successful lobbying efforts in Washington, DC.  In March, 2015, Dr. Mathew was appointed as the neurology representative on the advisory board of the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS.org), and in January, 2019 was appointed Director of Legislative Affairs.  NBPAS is an organization committed to providing board re-certification that ensures physician compliance with national standards and lifelong learning after completing initial board certification with an American Board of Medical Specialties Board.

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Dr. Larry Newman is a neurology professor at NYU Langone School of Medicine, Chair of the American Migraine Foundation and a migraine warrior himself. He truly understands the desperation we all feel when it seems like we’re out of treatment options. As director of the headache division at NYU Langone, Dr. Newman leads a team of board-certified neurologists and headache specialists to treat people who have migraine, cluster headache, trigeminal neuralgia, or other headache-related disorders using a variety of approaches — not just the standard therapies.

His research has been published in Neurology, Headache, Cephalalgia, and other medical journals. Dr. Newman is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the National Headache Foundation, and the International Headache Society, and he is the former president of the American Headache Society. He’s an outside-the-box thinker who approaches every case with tenacity and humanity to find the best treatments for each person.

Nada Hindiyeh, M.D., is a board-certified neurologist and headache specialist and is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor in the department of Neurology at Stanford University. She is the Director of Clinical Research for the Stanford division of Headache Medicine and serves as principal investigator for several clinical trials.

She was awarded the 2013 Clinical Research Fellowship in Neurotoxins by the American Academy of Neurology and was chosen as an Emerging Leader in the field of Headache Medicine by the American Headache Society in 2017. Her research interests include pathophysiology and novel treatments for migraine, and participation in clinical trials for new headache therapeutics. She is currently a member of the American Headache Society (AHS), serves on the AHS Electronic Media committee and a member of the International Headache Society and the Headache Cooperative of the Pacific.

Dr. Hindiyeh completed her medical degree at the University of Toledo College of Medicine in Toledo Ohio. Both her internship and Neurology residency were completed at the University of California, Irvine, Medical Center, where she was chief resident. She completed her fellowship in headache and facial pain at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Paula K. Dumas is a lifelong migraine warrior, Founder, and former Managing Editor of MigraineAgain.com.

After juggling a demanding career with CNN, Apple, and Disney, she shifted gears to devote herself to family, faith, and health advocacy. Although she’s lost a decade’s worth of days to migraine, she’s been able to reduce her frequency from 25 days a month to less than a day a month.

Now, she’s helping others to do the same.

To advocate for people with migraine, Paula has served on the Board of the American Migraine Foundation (AMF), the steering committee of the Coalition of Headache and Migraine Patients (CHAMP), the International Headache Society Global Patient Advocacy Committee, and was nominated for a WEGO Health Advocate award. She and her husband, Karl, lobby legislators on Capitol Hill as part of the US Headache on the Hill organized by the Association of Headache Disorders Advocacy (AHDA).

She’s spoken at the International Headache Academy, the first Migraine World Summit, and Research America’s Annual National Health Forum to raise awareness about migraine. She presented her research at the American Academy of Neurology conference, one of two academic research studies she co-authored (CaMEO and My Migraine Voice). Together, these research studies measure the impact that migraine has on people’s lives, relationships, work, and finances in over 31 countries.

She’s authored over 300 articles on migraine health and wellness to educate people with migraine and produced over 200 videos, interviews, and podcasts. With Carl and her husband Karl, Paula co-founded the World Health Education Foundation, producing the largest live event for people with migraine, Migraine World Summit Onstage in LA in March 2019 and New York in March 2020.

To create healthier workplaces for people with migraine, Paula serves as chair of the MigraineAtWork.org campaign, focused on helping employers and employees tackle the widespread challenge of working through painful attacks. Each year, Paula co-leads an amazing global team of people with migraine who produce the Migraine World Summit, demonstrating the resilience and commitment of these courageous warriors.

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Carl Cincinnato stopped taking his health for granted at an early age due to migraine. He has had migraine for 30 years. Over this time, health has become central throughout his life and work. This includes working with some of the biggest health companies in the world.

Today, he works with several charities, foundations, and organizations, including Headache Australia, the Brain Foundation, the Coalition of Headache and Migraine Patients, the Global Patient Advocacy Coalition, and the World Headache and Migraine Alliance. He is a member of the International Headache Society, acts on several advisory councils, and is the editor at MigrainePal.com and co-host for the Migraine World Summit.

Carl is a public and passionate patient advocate for migraine. He has spoken nationally and internationally about migraine and the need to increase research funding, reduce stigma, and increase patient support and education.

Belinda Savage-Edwards, M.D., is a neurologist with over 30 years of experience in the medical field, specializing in headache, neuromuscular and movement disorders, and neurodegenerative disorders. She holds board certifications from the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine, and in headache medicine through the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties. In addition, she holds a certification in Added Qualifications in Headache Medicine by the National Headache Foundation. She was selected as an Alabama delegate for Neurology on the Hill in Washington, D.C., and the Academy of Neurology’s inaugural leadership program, Live Well, Lead Well.  She is the principal investigator for numerous adult and pediatric migraine clinical trials; and is in private practice in Huntsville, Alabama.

Lindsay Videnieks integrates her nearly 20 years of public policy and campaign experience to provide the Headache and Migraine Policy Forum with expert strategic guidance on legislative and issue campaigns. She is also responsible for directing the Coalition & Nonprofit Management division for Woodberry Associates, a leading Washington, D.C., law firm.

Lindsay graduated with high honors from the University of Maine at Orono with bachelor of arts degrees in both political science and English, and received her law degree from Catholic University. She is admitted to practice law in Maryland, where she lives with her husband and three children.

Dr. Gominak attended college in California and medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, receiving her M.D. in 1983. She completed a neurology residency in 1989 at the Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. From 1991-2004 she practiced as a general neurologist in the San Francisco Bay area. In 2004, she moved with her husband to Tyler, Texas, and began to concentrate on treating neurological illness by improving sleep. She published a pivotal article in 2012 proposing that the global struggle with worsening sleep was linked to reduced sun exposure. In 2016, she followed with a second article linking the change in the intestinal microbiome to the epidemic of poor sleep, and described a simple process for normalizing sleep and the intestinal bacterial population, called RightSleep®.

In 2016, she retired from office practice to have more time to teach. She currently divides her time between teaching individuals through virtual coaching sessions and teaching clinicians from a wide variety of medical and dental fields. Her popular courses and lectures help clinicians improve their patients’ health and well-being by improving their sleep.

Sheila Thorne is a cross-cultural education specialist with specific expertise in diverse global cultures. For more than two decades, she has worked with health care professionals throughout North America, Latin America, and Western Europe. She advises the top 50 pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical-device companies, and 20 U.S. hospital systems in the clinical research and marketing of prescription medicines and consumer health products to people of color. She is also an associate clinical professor at Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare; adjunct professor in the physician assistant program at Quinnipiac University School of Medicine; an annual guest lecturer on ethnic media relations at the New York University Department of Media, Culture, and Communication; and lecturer on cultural competency in health care at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.