Ambereen Kurwa Mehta, MD

Dr. Habela completed a Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. She received her PhD in Neurobiology in 2008 and her MD in 2010. After medical school, she specialized in child neurology, and completed 2 years of pediatrics residency and 3 years of child neurology residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2015. She then completed another 2 years of training specifically focused on the diagnosis, characterization and medical and surgical management of patients with epilepsy during an Epilepsy Fellowship at Johns Hopkins.Dr. Habela’s clinic specializes in pediatric neurology and epilepsy. Her clinical focus in on the care of patients with severe epilepsy with or without other neurodevelopmental disorders that have not been easily controlled with medications. She is also focused on the genetic causes of epilepsy and other neurodevelopmental disabilities with the hope that increasing our understanding of the genetic causes of epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disabilities will improve treatment. Dr. Habela’s basic science research is focused on the genetic mechanisms regulating appropriate proliferation, migration and integration of neurons and glial cells in both the prenatal and postnatal developing brain and how aberrations in these processes result in neurodevelopmental disabilities. Her hypothesis is that deregulation of pre and postnatal neurogenesis and synaptogenesis contributes to the behavioral phenotypes observed in many forms of intellectual disability, epilepsy and autism. Her research applies what we know from human genetic studies to basic science studies examining how specific genetic changes alter neurogenesis, synaptogenesis and overall excitation / inhibition balance in laboratory model systems. Her goal is to provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of these processes and, in turn, possibly identify specific targets for disease modifying treatments for epilepsy.

Lora L. Clawson, MSN, CRNP is Director of ALS Clinical Services at Johns Hopkins. She coordinates ALS clinical care management, clinical research studies, and community fundraising for ALS clinical services, which includes the $2 million Cal Ripken/Lou Gehrig donation to Johns Hopkins in 1995.Her ALS career began at Hopkins over 20 years ago as a Research Nurse Coordinator. She became the facilitator of the Baltimore ALS Support Group and the Salisbury ALS Support Group. As an ALS expert, Ms. Clawson has coordinated over 25 ALS research studies, co-authored over 30 publications, and over 40 abstracts at ALS conferences around the country. She has chaired the National Neuromuscular Nursing Advisory Board and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Advisory Board for ALS, served on many committees such as The Robert Wood Johnson Excellence in End of Life Care in ALS, the ALSA Clinic Certification Committee, the El Escorial Revised Diagnostic Criteria, World Federation of Neurology, ALS Research Group, Hospice Network of Maryland, and the ALS Northeast Consortium Executive committee. Ms. Clawson was the recipient of the Vickie Appel Award for Excellence in ALS Clinical Care in January 1999.Ms. Clawson was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Neurology in 1998. Now an Assistant Professor, she teaches at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and serves as a mentor and instructor to undergraduate and graduate nursing students.

Dr. Joon Kang focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of seizures and epilepsy. Dr. Kang has a clinical interest in the pre-surgical evaluation and treatment of patients who have drug resistant epilepsy. Her research interests include minimally invasive epilepsy surgery, continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring in the intensive care unit (ICU) and status epilepticus.Dr. Kang received her bachelor degree from University of Pennsylvania and went on to receive her medical degree from Drexel College of Medicine. After internship at Pennsylvania Hospital, she completed residency and fellowship training in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA.Dr. Kang currently sees patients at The Johns Hopkins outpatient center on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.