UCNS Welcomes New Board Members

7-27-22 The United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties (UCNS) is pleased to announce the election of new members and officers to the Board of Directors. Board nominations are made by the UCNS Parent and Subspecialty Sponsoring Organizations.

New Officers and Parent Organization Representatives

Lawrence Wechsler, MD was elected to serve a two-year term as Chair of the Board of the Board of Directors. Dr. Wechsler has served on the Board since 2019 as a representative of the Association of University Professors of Neurology and served as UCNS Treasurer in 2020/2021. He is the Chair of the University of Pennsylvania Health System Department of Neurology at Pennsylvania Hospital. He has been UCNS certified in Neuroimaging since 2015.

Salvador Cruz-Flores MD, MPH, represents the American Neurological Association and was elected to serve a two-year term in the officer role of Vice Chair. He is a Professor and Founding Chairman for the Department of Neurology at the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. Dr. Cruz-Flores is also Chief of Neurology, Director of the Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit, and Chief of Staff at the University Medical Center of El Paso. He has been UCNS-certified in Neurocritical Care since 2007 and UCNS-certified in Neuroimaging since 2008.

Margie A. Ream, MD, PhD, was elected to serve as Secretary/Treasurer from 2022-2024. She a voting member representing the Professors & Educators of Child Neurology. She is a Child Neurologist and Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She was elected to serve a three-year term on the board beginning in 2021.  

Nancy Bass, MD, was elected to a three-year voting term representing the Child Neurology Society. Dr. Bass is a Child Neurologist and Professor of Pediatrics at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Case Western Reserve University. She is the current President of the Professors and Educators of Child Neurology.

New Subspecialty Sponsoring Organization Representatives

C. Alan Anderson, MD, represents the subspecialty of Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry as a voting member of the Board. He was nominated by the American Neuropsychiatric Association and Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology. Dr. Anderson is a UCNS diplomate, certified in Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry since 2006. He is a Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and serves as the university’s Associate Director of the Behavioral Neurology Section.

Tahseen Mozaffar, MD, was nominated by the Clinical Neuromuscular Pathology (CNMP) sponsoring organization, the AAN Neuromuscular Section. He will serve a two-year nonvoting term. He is a Professor of Neurology at University of California-Irvine and is Director of the Division of Neuromuscular Diseases, Neurology
School of Medicine and Director of the UC Irvine-MDA ALS and Neuromuscular Center, Neurology School of Medicine. Dr. Mozaffar has been UCNS certified in CNMP since 2015.

Siddharth Kapoor, MD, represents Headache Medicine and will serve as a non-voting member of the Board from 2022-2024. He is the Director of the Headache Clinic at the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute, University Kentucky HealthCare.  Dr. Kapoor is an Associate Professor of Neurology and has been UCNS-certified in Headache Medicine since 2017. He was nominated by the subspecialty’s co-sponsoring organizations, the American Headache Society and the AAN’s Headache & Facial Pain Section.

Re-Elected Subspecialty Sponsoring Organization Representatives

Angela Hays Shapshak, MD, represents the subspecialty of Neurocritical Care as a voting member of the Board and was re-nominated by the Neurocritical Care Society and AAN’s Critical Care and Emergency Neurology Section. Dr Hays Shapshak is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Anesthesiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center. She has been UCNS-certified in Neurocritical Care since 2007 and has previously served on the UCNS Neurocritical Care Milestone Development Task Force and on the UCNS Accreditation Council.

Justin Jordan, MD, was re-nominated to serve a second term on the UCNS Board representing Neuro-oncology. He will serve as a non-voting member of the Board and was nominated by the American Academy of Neurology’s (AAN) Neuro-oncology Section. Dr. Jordan is a UCNS diplomate, certified in Neuro-oncology since 2015. He joined the clinical faculty of the Pappas Center for Neuro-Oncology and the Family Center for Neurofibromatosis in February 2015 and became Clinical Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Brain Tumor Center in July 2017. He became the Director of the Family Center for Neurofibromatosis in 2020.

The UCNS Board of Directors has nine voting members. The five parent organizations have permanent seats with one vote each. The four other seats are for representatives of UCNS member subspecialties with voting privileges rotating amongst the subspecialties. Meetings of the UCNS Board are also attended by a representative of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology who serves as a non-voting "liaison" in addition to the executive directors of the parent organizations who participate in an ex-officio capacity.