Professor Gretchen Birbeck

Professor Gretchen Birbeck is the Rykenboer Professor of Neurology at the University of Rochester where she also serves as Research Director for the Epilepsy Division. She is a consultant at Zambia’s University Teaching Hospitals Children’s Hospital in Lusaka and serves as Director for the Chikankata Epilepsy Care Team in Mazabuka, Zambia . Her work includes supporting numerous EEG Labs in Africa including at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi.

Since 1994, Professor Gretchen Birbeck has served as a physician, medical educator, and researcher in sub-Saharan Africa. Her overarching professional goal is to elucidate the mechanisms of common neurology disorders in the region, identify opportunities for feasible, affordable, evidence-based interventions aimed at preventing or ameliorating neurologic illness/injury, and move these interventions forward into clinical trials. Professor Gretchen Birbeck’s research priorities are directly informed by their experience as a clinician and educator in Zambia and Malawi. Having originally trained as an adult neurologist in the US, her postdoctoral studies in health services research, epidemiology, pediatric epilepsy, and tropical medicine were all selected based upon the skills needed to pursue these overarching professional goals. Given the dearth of neurologic expertise in Africa and the heavy burden of disease there, her research program spans a broad range of conditions and is made possible through strong collaborations with in-country colleagues and US-based neuroscientists with advanced sub-specialty expertise. Capacity building through mentoring of both US and African scientists is a cornerstone of Professor Gretchen Birbeck’s endeavors. Their Africa-based work has received continuous support from the US NIH for over two decades and is presently supported by R35NS122265 Global Research Endeavors to Advance Treatment of Neurological Disorders in Africa; and R01NS111057 An MRI Ancillary Grant on a Malaria Fever Control RCT. In addition to their own funding, they are presently a mentor for five active NIH career development awardees.