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Cancer can be devastating to families. When I was growing up, my mother passed away from breast cancer, which inspired me to pursue a career in medicine—I wanted to devote my professional life to providing hope, through excellent medical care and research, to people who have cancer. I grew up in a family of doctors who served as role models, including internationally renowned cancer surgeons. I decided on neurosurgery because I was drawn to the infinite complexity of the brain. When I was in medical school, the specialty wasn’t as advanced as it is today—my goal, in addition to becoming a brain surgeon, was to develop technology to improve the safety and efficacy of brain tumor surgery.

As a neurosurgeon at �ٺ���Ƶ’s Brain and Spine Tumor Center, part of Perlmutter Cancer Center, I treat people who have tumors of the spinal cord and the brain, both those that originate in the brain and spread to the brain from other organs. I use two classes of tools to ensure optimal outcomes when removing brain tumors: brain mapping technology to understand the function and properties of the brain and advanced imaging to view and assess the tumor. Brain tumor surgery is a balancing act of removing as much of the tumor as possible and minimizing any effect on the surrounding brain. Together, these tools allow me to provide optimal outcomes.

I have special expertise in treating people whose tumors reside in the area of the brain essential for language and movement. For these patients, I specialize in brain mapping operations, in which I have extensive experience. Additionally, I have developed a novel laser-based technique—stimulated Raman histology—to detect tumors that we previously were unable to see.

I believe that maintaining open lines of communication with my patients and their families is essential to ensuring the best possible outcomes. I make myself available and accessible to my patients, which they greatly appreciate. Additionally, my patients have the benefit of being cared for by a team of physicians, nurses, therapists, and technicians, all of whom play a key role in various phases of their care. Often, many of my patients require radiation, chemotherapy, or both, so I work with their oncologists and closely follow up in their care.

In addition to providing clinical care, I run a highly interdisciplinary, National Health Institutes–funded research group focused on three initiatives—we aim to improve surgical outcomes for people with brain tumors, use artificial intelligence to support surgical decision-making and brain tumor diagnosis, and conduct clinical and translational trials of novel therapeutics. I am the recipient of six grants from the National Institutes of Health. I am most proud of receiving the Andrew Parsa Young Investigator Basic/Translational Research Award from the Society for Neuro-Oncology in 2016, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons’ Innovator of the Year Award in 2017, and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons’ Rosenblum–Mahaley Clinical Research Award in 2019.