Martin J Brodie
Chair
Professor Martin Brodie directs the Epilepsy Unit in the Western Infirmary, which provides a range of services for people with seizure disorders. He qualified in Medicine at Glasgow University in 1971 and undertook his postgraduate training in London before taking up his present post in 1981. His research interests include antiepileptic drug neuropharmacology, management of epilepsy and factors affecting treatment response.
Professor Brodie has published more than 400 books, editorials, chapters, reviews, proceedings and articles in peer reviewed journals. He was Treasurer of the International League against Epilepsy from 2005 until 2009, having previously been its Vice-president.
He chairs the Management Group of the European Concerted Action and Research in Epilepsy (EUCARE), and is a founding member of the European Epilepsy Academy (EUREPA). He set up and chairs the Board of Trustees of the charity, Scottish Epilepsy Initiative. Martin Brodie has been appointed “Ambassador for Epilepsy” on behalf of the International League against Epilepsy and the International Bureau for Epilepsy.
Michel Baulac
Member
Michel Baulac is Professor of Neuroanatomy and Neurology at Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris, and Head of the Clinical Department at La Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital. He is in charge of the clinical epilepsy programmes and coordinates epilepsy research among various research units.
Michel Baulac qualified as a neurologist at the University of La Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris where he completed his neurosciences training.
For the past 20 years, Michel Baulac has been developing a comprehensive epilepsy programme featuring EEG video-monitoring, in- and out-patient clinics, epilepsy surgery and clinical pharmacology of antiepileptic drugs. In parallel, he coordinates several research programmes on topics such as mechanisms of seizure emergence in human post-operative tissues, seizure anticipation based on non-linear mathematical models, genetics of epilepsy, and neuroimaging (structural and functional) characteristics of epilepsy.
Together with colleagues from La Pitié-Salpêtrière, he has published extensively in the field of epilepsy, including recent papers in the Lancet, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, and Science. With his paediatrician colleague, Professor Olivier Dulac, he has contributed to the creation of a Centre for Rare Epileptic Diseases, as part of the French governmental programme focussing on rare diseases, targeting the epileptic encephalopathies from infancy to adulthood.
After serving from 2005 to 2009 as Chair of the ILAE Commission on European Affairs, Michel Baulac was recently elected as a Vice-President of the International League Against Epilepsy.
Athanasios Covanis
Member
He obtained a Diploma in Child Health from the University of Glasgow, Diplomas in Paediatrics and in Adult Neurology from Athens University. In 1982 he completed his MD thesis, which he passed with distinction from Athens University. He has also obtained the certificates of Epileptologists and “Train the Trainers” from EUREPA. He has maintained an active clinical interest in epilepsy, with particular interest in classification and epilepsy syndromes in infancy and childhood.
Dr Covanis is an IBE/ILAE Ambassador for Epilepsy, President both of the Greek League and Greek Bureau for Epilepsy, Chair of the IBE European Regional Executive Committee, Honorary Member of the Yugoslav Union of Leagues Against Epilepsy and member of EUREPA. He has held the following positions: IBE Vice President (2001-2009), Member of the Executive Committee of the Hellenic Neurology Society.
Dr Covanis is Member of the Editorial Board of Epilepsia and Epileptic Disorders.
He is a regular speaker at international congresses and has also been involved in organizing several national and international epilepsy congresses.
Mike Glynn
Member
Mike Glynn was elected IBE President for the term 2009-2013. In this role, he is also an ex officio member of the ILAE Executive Committee. He is also co-chair of the ILAE/IBE/WHO Global Campaign Against Epilepsy ‘Out of the Shadows’, together with ILAE President Nico Moshé.
His first connection with the field of epilepsy was when he worked for Brainwave The Irish Epilepsy Association, IBE’s Full Member in Ireland, in a financial consultancy role. However, his interest in the condition, due to a close family member’s epilepsy, led to his joining on a permanent basis. He has been Chief Executive of Brainwave since 1999.
At international level, he was Finance Officer for IBE, working with the then Treasurer, over a 10 year period, before being elected Treasurer of IBE in 2005.
He has been a member of the IBE Commission on Regional Associations and was Vice Chair of the IBE European Regional Committee from 2000 to 2005. In 2001 he completed the Professional Diploma in Epilepsy Care at Leeds University and was honoured as an IBE/ILAE Ambassador for Epilepsy in 2003. His special interest areas are driving and epilepsy, SUDEP, and employment and epilepsy. He has been a speaker at several international epilepsy congresses.
Reetta Kalviainen
Member
Reetta Kälviäinen obtained her MD and PhD at the University of Kuopio, Finland. Dr Kälviäinen acts as Head of the Outpatient Clinic at the Kuopio University Hospital as well as Docent of Clinical Neurology and Project Leader of Clinical Epilepsy Research at the Department of Neuroscience and Neurology at the Kuopio University.
She is a member of several associations and societies, including President of the Finnish Epilepsy Association (Full Member of the International Bureau for Epilepsy, IBE), Secretary of the Finnish Epilepsy Society (Chapter of International League Against Epilepsy, ILAE), Trustee in the Finnish Epilepsy Research Foundation and Chair of the Board of Trustees in the Vaajasalo Foundation supporting epilepsy research. . She is Secretary of the European Advisory Council under the ILAE Commission on European Affairs.
Her special research interest is in clinical epileptology, including the prognostic factors of newly diagnosed epilepsy, the possible progressive nature of the epileptic process, as well as cognitive functions and neuroimaging in epilepsy. These aspects of scientific projects are combined with therapeutic neuropharmacological interventions. She has participated in many multinational multi-center drug trials and has designed numerous single center studies performed at the Epilepsy Center of Kuopio University Hospital. Many of the drug trials have included evaluation of the cognitive effects of new anti-epileptic drugs. In addition, Dr Kälviäinen is an active participant in the epilepsy surgery program of Kuopio University Hospital.
Janet Mifsud
Member
Dr Janet Mifsud obtained her PhD in 1995 at Queen’s University of Belfast. Her doctoral research focused on pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of chiral antiepileptic drugs used in absence seizures. These studies continued in Malta with the Departments of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Medicine at St Luke’s hospital and the University of Malta. Dr Mifsud has published on the therapeutic management of antiepileptic drugs.
Dr Mifsud helped found the League and Bureau member in Malta and assisted both associations to lobby health policy makers and politicians. She has organised several conferences in Malta: an EU Youth meeting (2003), IBE Conference on Epilepsy & Society (2004) and co-ordinated an EU Grundtvig project on Curricular Education for Professionals Allied to Medicine (PAMS).
Dr Mifsud co-ordinates the undergraduate curriculum in pharmacology for medical, pharmacy and dental students at University of Malta and supervises students undertaking masters and doctoral projects in neuropharmacology and pharmacokinetics. She introduced teaching of epilepsy to undergraduate courses including pharmacy, medicine, dentistry, teachers, nurses, social workers and psychologists. She was involved in the development of the EUCARE Action Pack and Call to Action.
Her present research considers aspects of the incidence and treatment of epilepsy in Malta in specific populations; this has now expanded to genetic implications. Dr Janet Mifsud is secretary of EUREPA and IBE Vice President Europe.
Hanneke de Boer
Non-voting Member
Hanneke de Boer has been working in the field of epilepsy since 1966. She became the chair of the first IBE Employment Commission in 1983 and was appointed editor of the International Epilepsy News in 1985. She was IBE’s Secretary General from 1989-1993 and its president from 1997-2001.
In 1999 she joined the Secretariat of the ILAE/IBE/WHO Global Campaign Against Epilepsy and was co-chair until 2005; she is still involved in the work of the campaign as co-ordinator.
Ms de Boer’s work at SEIN started in 1966, originally as a vocational consultant. Over the past 10 years she has been involved in the development and maintenance of international contacts for this Epilepsy Centre in the Netherlands, which was designated by WHO as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Research, Training and Treatment in Epilepsy in 2004.
Ms De Boer has received a number of awards for her work, including the Award of the Christian Society for the Care of people with Epilepsy in the Netherlands; the IBE/ILAE Ambassador for Epilepsy Award, the Spike and Wave award of the Dutch Branch of ILAE (Honorary Member), the IBE/ILAE Award for Social Accomplishment, the IBE/ILAE Lifetime Achievement Award and a Dutch Royal decoration: Officer in the Order of Oranje Nassau.
Joseph d’Souza
Non-voting Member
Senior Global Medical Director, Epilepsy
Global Medical Affairs CNS
UCB Pharma SA – Belgium