Learning the Full Impact of Migraine Through Patient Voices

Dr. Rebecca Erwin Wells is a professor of neurology and social sciences and health policy, with tenure at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, NC. In 2012, she founded their Comprehensive Headache Program, which she has continued to direct. She graduated with highest honors on a full academic scholarship from UNC-Chapel Hill, received her MD from East Carolina-Brody School of Medicine, completed a neurology residency at University of Virginia, and obtained her Master of Public Health (MPH) from Harvard University. She also completed fellowships in integrative medicine and headache medicine from Harvard.

Dr. Wells currently serves as immediate past president of the Southern Headache Society. She is on the board of directors of the American Headache Society (AHS), and is a fellow of the AHS and the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). She received the AHS’s Above and Beyond Award for her service as co-chair of the AHS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force. She received the AHS Early Career Lecture Award for her research on the patient voice in migraine and the AAN’s Harold Wolff-John Graham Award for recognition of her outstanding achievements in headache/facial pain research. Her National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research investigates the mechanisms and efficacy of mind/body treatments for headache, which often receives media attention, including interviews with Time magazine, NPR, BBC News, The Boston Globe, and Prevention magazine.

She also conducts research evaluating the genetics of cluster headache, and presents to national and international audiences as an expert in headache, mind/body, and integrative medicine. She has received funding from the NIH, the National Headache Foundation, and the American Pain Society for her research. As a trained mindfulness meditation instructor, she led mindfulness sessions virtually with worldwide participants during the pandemic.