Join Parkinson Social Network for our next Online Saturday Brunch Webinar presentation:

NIH and its Role in Research and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease

Saturday, October 30th
10:30am-12pm EDT

Speakers Scheduled to Present:
Dr. Beth-Anne Sieber
Program Director in the Division of Neuro Science, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Dr. Beth-Anne Sieber is a program officer at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), managing a research grant portfolio on Parkinson’s disease (PD) and related disorders, dystonia and essential tremor. Her PD grant portfolio includes neurobiological and pharmacological approaches to understand neuronal loss and alterations in circuitry; neuroinflammation and neuroimmune aspects of PD and the role of the gut-brain axis. Dr. Sieber also manages the Udall Centers of Excellence for PD Research program and chairs the NINDS PD Work Group (PDWG), which coordinates  PD research programs and related activities across extramural NINDS. 

Prior to joining the NINDS, Dr. Sieber served as a program director at the National Institute of Mental Health NIMH, where she managed a grant portfolio in developmental neurobiology and co-chaired related efforts for the NIH Neuroscience Blueprint. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Neurobiology from a joint program between Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Her graduate studies focused on preclinical models of dopamine neuron degeneration, with emphasis on neuropharmacological and neurochemical approaches to determine the roles of neuronal-glial interactions and neurotrophic factors in PD. Postdoctoral studies at the Karolinska Institute utilized molecular approaches to elucidate the role of neurotrophic factors and receptor tyrosine kinases in survival and function of dopamine neurons.

Dr. Debra Ehrlich
Chief of the Parkinson’s Disease Clinic at the NIH Clinical Center

Dr. Debra Ehrlich is the Director of the Parkinson’s Disease Clinic at the National Institutes of Health/NINDS. She completed her undergraduate studies at Brandeis University and received an M.S. from Rutgers University in 2006 with master’s thesis work exploring molecular alterations in the cerebellum of PMCA2-null mice. Dr. Ehrlich received her M.D. from Rutgers University-New Jersey Medical School in 2011.

She continued at Rutgers-New Jersey Medical school to complete her medical internship, then completed her residency training in neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Montefiore where she served as chief resident. After residency, she completed two years of fellowship training in movement disorders at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She joined the NIH as a Staff Clinician in 2017. She is also serving as the Program Director for the Clinical Movement Disorders Fellowship program at NIH. Dr. Ehrlich is board certified in neurology. Her research focuses on clinical studies in patients with Parkinson’s Disease and other movement disorders with a particular interest in deep brain stimulation as a treatment for various movement disorders.

Mr. Justin Cohen,
Director of the Clinical Center Office of Patient Recruitment

As chief of the Office of Communications and Media Relations and Patient Recruitment (OCMR), Justin Cohen is responsible for overseeing conceptual direction, strategic initiatives and the day-to-day communications operation for the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, the largest hospital in the world dedicated to clinical research. NIH Clinical Center communications and recruitment serve diverse audiences: patients and families, potential patients and healthy volunteers, staff and visiting health professionals, and a wide range of other personal and professional visitors. Cohen earned his BA degree with honors in political science from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. He completed an MA degree in political science at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, and then decided to advance and refine his educational attainment by earning an MS in Health and Social Behavior from Harvard University School of Public Health.