Julie G. Pilitsis MD, PhD is a Professor of Neurosurgery and of Neuroscience at Albany Medical College and Chair for the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics. She completed her neurosurgery residency at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. During that time, she also obtained a PhD in neurophysiology and became active in both basic science and translational research. She went on to complete a fellowship in Functional Neurosurgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL. To date, she has served as Chair of the Joint Section on Pain of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS)/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) as well as AANS/CNS Chair of Joint Section for Women in Neurosurgery. She is currently an Executive Council Member of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Scientific Program for the AANS, and on the NANS Board of Directors. With the support of the NANS Board of Directors, she began the NANS Women in Neuromodulation Section where she was the first chair and currently serves as senior advisor. Dr. Pilitsis maintains an NIH sponsored research program focused on device optimization for neuromodulation and has published over 120 journal articles, 4 books, and numerous chapters. She serves as section editor of functional neurosurgery for Journal of Neurosurgery and Operative Neurosurgery, is on the editorial board of Neuromodulation, and sits on multiple NIH study sections.