Consultant Neurologist / Epileptologist
Children’s Neuroscience Service, Dept of Neurology
Clinical Lead, Epilepsy and Neurophysiology
Perth Children’s Hospital, Child and Adolescent Health Service, WA
Clinical Professor, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
University of Western Australia. WA 6909
Telephone: 61 8 64564333
Fax: 61 8 64562325
Email: lakshmi.nagarajan@health.wa.gov.au

Prof Nagarajan is proud and privileged to be the Secretary of a vibrant ICNA membership that promotes bidirectional respectful collaboration between its members. An ICNA that has grown in strength and reach, having been nurtured by the dedication and hard work of numerous individuals, over the last 50 years.  An ICNA that is aware of and helps address the priorities and challenges encountered in different parts of the world. An ICNA that endeavours to tackle the inequities in health services for children with neurological disorders. An ICNA that facilitates discussion regarding ethics and finance in neurological care. An ICNA that promotes education, research, and training in child neurology, as well as advocates for its members in-order to prevent and optimise the care of all children with neurological dysfunction. An ICNA that works towards being compliant with changing rules and regulations of an international non-profit organisation. Prof. Nagarajan is standing for the ICNA President Elect position in 2024. She has an been an enthusiastic worker and office bearer for ICNA and other regional and national organizations.

Prof Lakshmi Nagarajan is a Child Neurologist / Epileptologist from Perth Children’s Hospital, Australia. Dr Nagarajan directs the Child and Adolescent Epilepsy Program in Western Australia. Lakshmi is a Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Western Australia.

Professor Nagarajan qualified from the Christian Medical College, Vellore in India, and had post-graduate training in Paediatrics at the Post Graduate institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India before moving to Australia. She completed Paediatric Neurology training in Australia and United States of America (USA). She has undertaken sabbaticals in Canada and Italy. Thus, she has experience of Paediatric Neurology in five countries and 4 continents. She has given grand rounds in Canada, Italy and the USA. She has lectured in Bangladesh, France, India, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam. She is a full-time clinician and actively involved in clinical teaching and is an examiner for post-graduate examinations. This extensive international experience has provided her with insights into Paediatric Neurology across the globe.

Prof. Nagarajan has been involved with the teaching, advocacy and research activities of ICNA for many years. She is the current Secretary of ICNA. She has been on the ICNA Executive Board since 2014 As secretary, Lakshmi is one of the officers of ICNA and has over-arching responsibility (along with the other office bearers) for all ICNA’s activities, besides being on several committees. She chairs the International Review of Child Neurology series committee in ICNA. Dr Nagarajan is on the editorial Board of JICNA. Lakshmi has been on several scientific committees for the ICNCs, has organised the ICNC 2012 satellite meeting in Perth. Prof Nagarajan organised the Education meeting in Vietnam as an Executive Board member and has participated in other educational meetings of ICNA and ILAE in Dhaka, Mexico City, Antalya, Kuala Lumpur, Xiamen, Chennai. Lakshmi, along with ICNA officers and EB members, is addressing the need to ensure ICNA is compliant with the new changes in Belgian Law.

Prof Nagarajan is the National Delegate from Australia to the Asian Oceanian Child Neurology Association – AOCNA. Lakshmi chairs the Constitution and Bylaws Committee of the AOCNA.

Dr Nagarajan has been a past Vice President of the Epilepsy Society of Australia – ESA and Chair of the Education committee of the ESA for 10 years. Lakshmi has previously been an Executive Board member of the Australia New Zealand Child Neurology Association (ANZCNS).

Prof Nagarajan was the Secretary of the Clinical Staff Association of Princess Margaret Hospital (now Perth Children’s Hospital - PCH), has been a member of the “Shape Our Future” committee of the Child and Adolescent Health Service of WA. Since its inception, achievements of this committee include the creation of CAHS “Values and Living our Values statements”, the Kindness Day card initiative, launching the CAHS Culture Action Strategy, Culture Network and the advocation for the creation of the Executive Director, People Capability and Culture position. Lakshmi is also on the Western Australian Cerebral Palsy Advisory committee.

Lakshmi is on the Australian Epilepsy Clinical Trials Network (AECTN), The Australian Genomic Health Alliance, the Australian Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy Research group (DEER), and the Febrile Infection-Related Epilepsy Syndrome study group. Lakshmi is a member of the Epilepsy Society of Australia’s (ESA) task force on Continuous VEEG monitoring in Neonatal ICU, Paediatric ICU and Aduly ICU and one of the authors of the position statement on the ESA website and the publication of the position statement in a Critical Care Journal.

Dr Nagarajan’s main research interests are in Neonatal Neurology, Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology. Prof Nagarajan is a full-time clinician who has >80 publications and is the editor of a book on Neonatal Seizures (IRCN, published by Mac Keith Press, 2016). Lakshmi is currently working on an IRCN atlas on neonatal EEG.

Prof Nagarajan has been an invited speaker and has participated in symposia at several international and national conferences. Neonatal EEGs is an area of expertise for Dr. Nagarajan.  She is on the ILAE task force for Treatment of Neonatal Seizures and is an author of the recently published international guidelines on treatment of neonatal seizures.

Prof Nagarajan is dedicated to the aims of ICNA and will work passionately on its behalf. 

Dr. Wirrell completed her medical school at the University of British Columbia, followed by a residency in Child Neurology at Dalhousie University in Canada. She is currently Professor and Chair of Child Neurology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota USA.

She has been keenly involved with ICNA for many years, serving as an ICNA Executive Board member since 2018, as Chair of the ICNA Research Committee from 2018-2022 and she is currently Co-Chair of the Bylaws and Constitution Committee.

Dr Wirrell has a passion for mentorship of junior colleagues in clinical child neurology and research. As Chair of the Research Committee, she established a “Top Tips for Research” section on ICNApedia, which provides key resources for junior investigators on how to do research. She also established the inaugural Research Methodology course for Junior members which was held for the first time at the 2022 ICNC. This course provided “hands-on” training for junior members to design a research project, under the mentorship of senior researchers, and present their proposed projects to a larger group for feedback. She remains keenly involved in the 2nd Research Methodology course which will be held at the Cape Town meeting.

As Co-Chair of the Bylaws and Constitution committee, she has worked to update ICNA’s legal documents, ensuring they reflect ICNA’s mission to promote high quality care for children with neurological disease around the globe and education for providers of neurological care to children, and that they are compliant with Belgian Authorities.

She has also served on the core Scientific Committee of the 2022 ICNC meeting in Antalya, Turkey and is Deputy Chair of the 2024 ICNC in Cape Town, South Africa. She has enjoyed participating in many teaching sessions at ICNA, as well as many other international meetings.

Dr. Wirrell was the former Co-Chair of the Nosology and Definitions Task Force of the ILAE, where she led an international group of colleagues to define clinical criteria for the various epilepsy syndromes, ensuring these were relevant to providers in both high and low-resource regions. She currently serves on both the Pediatrics and Surgical Therapies Commissions and the Terminology and the SNOMED Task Forces. She co-chairs the Pediatric Medical Therapies Task Force, where she is working with international colleagues on systematic and scoping reviews on management of various epilepsy syndromes including Infantile Epileptic Spasms syndrome, Dravet syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and the self-limited focal epilepsy syndromes of childhood. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Epilepsy.com, the public education website for the Epilepsy Foundation of America.

Dr. Wirrell has a keen interest in Neurology Education and served as the Vice-Chair of the Neurology Examination Committee of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada from 2009-14. She currently is the Program Director of the Child and Adolescent Neurology Residency at Mayo Clinic and served as Co-Chair of the Pellock Epilepsy Symposium, an educational program offered to all North American final year Child Neurology trainees through the Child Neurology Society from 2016-2023.
Her research interests include optimizing care for children with Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathies, epidemiology and co-morbidities of pediatric epilepsy and she has published over 270 peer-reviewed articles and numerous book chapters, many in collaboration with international colleagues.

She has been the recipient of several awards including the Kiffin Penry Award from the American Epilepsy Society for Excellence in Epilepsy Care, the Mayo Clinic Distinguished Clinician Award and the Clinical Teaching Award of Excellence by the Professional Association of Residents of Alberta.

I am very excited to see ICNA grow into a vibrant, international community of providers who are passionate about the care of children with neurological disorders. My goals as President would be to support our membership globally by providing high quality education to enhance clinical skills, to advocate for children with neurological disease globally and to promote innovative research. I will also work to ensure that ICNA has the organizational structure and financial viability to continue to achieve these goals, and ensure we continue to partner closely with regional organizations across the globe who share our mission.

Dr. Vidaurre is a Professor of Pediatric and Neurology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital – The Ohio State University. He is the current Director of the Pediatric Clinical Neurophysiology Program and EEG Laboratory. He is the Chair of the “Education Task Force” for the International League Against Epilepsy” (ILAE) and Chair of the “International Affairs Committee” for the Child Neurology Society (CNS). He serves as the “International Education Advisor” for the International Child Neurology Association (ICNA). Under his leadership, he fostered long term collaborations between ICNA and CNS for the creation of international outreach programs and educational training programs in different world regions, including Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Dr. Vidaurre has also served multiple times as part of the ICNA scientific committee for International Child Neurology congresses.

Dr. Vidaurre is greatly involved in work related to international collaborative programs in the field of pediatric neurology and epilepsy. He has extensive experience in the planning of educational and training programs in limited-resource regions, encouraging collaborative efforts between local leaders and national-international societies.  With continuous support of ICNA-CNS, Dr. Vidaurre has organized numerous local and regional international symposia in different countries and joined collaborative efforts directed at building infrastructure, such as, establishment of EEG laboratories, donations of EEG machines and training of EEG technicians in low -income countries. As chair of the ILAE Education Task Force, he is working on a practical, interactive, basic EEG curriculum in Spanish to be implemented in Latin American Countries.

.Dr. Vidaurre actively serves in other positions at  national and international societies. His activities include the following: Regional leader for Latin America and member of the ILAE “Global Task Force”. He is part of the “Executive Board and Scientific Committee” for the Ibero-American Child Neurology Association (AINP) and member of the “Advocacy Committee” for the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society (ACNS)

He participates in the “Professional Development Mentorship Program” at the ACNS and “Fellow-Mentor Program” at the AES. He also functioned as Chair of the “Global Health Special Interest Group” and member of the “Scientific Program Committee” for the AES”, member of the “Clinical Research Committee” for the ACNS and worked with the “ILAE North American Commission”.

He is board certified in Neurology with Special Qualifications in Child Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology and Epilepsy. He completed his epilepsy training at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After finishing his fellowship, he returned to Latin America and worked in El Salvador for three years, before accepting his current position at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. However, with ICNA and CNS support, he collaborated in the implementation of epilepsy surgical programs in El Salvador and continues to work in this project.

He has been nominated as top USA Doctors by Castle Connolly 2023-2024 and he received the 2022 “Gold Humanism Award” by the CNS.

Dr. Vidaurre is an advisor for the international National Institute of Health (NIH) grant “Center without walls grant on antiepileptogenesis in traumatic brain injury”. He has authored and published multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His research interests and publications are in the field of pediatric epilepsy, epileptic encephalopathies, quality improvement in status epilepticus, and global health. His study directed at decreasing administration time for second line therapy in status, published in Epilepsia, is one of the first ones to demonstrate the importance of quality improvements in the treatment of neurological emergencies. He has worked at improving diagnosis and treatment of children with infantile spasms. He is one of the authors involved in the creation of the new BASED score 2021, to evaluate response to treatment. The score is already used nationally and internationally. He works in the treatment of children with difficult to control epilepsy. His experience with use of stiripentol as off label medication for refractory epilepsy is likely one of the largest in the USA and his data has been presented at national meetings. Dr. Vidaurre has published multiple articles about the global situation of child neurology and importance of high-income to low-income collaborations.

One of his main goals during his academic career is the mentoring and teaching of younger generations of child neurologists. He has given more than 100 international lectures. Nationally, he has been an invited speaker to multiple national societies, delivering about 20 talks. He has given “Ground Rounds” at multiple prestigious and large academic centers including McGill University in Canada and lectured in many centers, such as Case Western Reserve University and the University of Pittsburgh. He participates as faculty at the Kuna Abroms Neurology Forum at Boston University, a practical symposium focusing on resident training. Finally, he has organized multiple symposiums about the global situation of Child Neurology to raise awareness between members of different societies.