Erika A. Petersen, MD, FAANS, FACS
University of Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas

Dr. Petersen directs the Section of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery and Neuromodulation at UAMS Medical Center. She is a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at UAMS and program director for the neurosurgery residency. Dr. Petersen is a board certified neurosurgeon whose clinical practice focuses on neuromodulation, treating movement disorders, spasticity, and chronic pain through surgical procedures and stereotactic radiosurgery. Dr. Petersen's research interests focus on developing new devices, indications, and methods for treating chronic pain using neuromodulation. Her collaborations with colleagues in engineering, interventional pain, neuroradiology, neurology, and psychiatry are aimed toward identifying new applications for the use of deep brain stimulation and neuromodulation for pain and other conditions. She is also involved in study of privacy and cybersecurity implications of implanted neuromodulation devices, patterns in mentoring, diversity, and inclusion in surgery, and the applications of virtual reality technology in the clinical neurosciences.

Dr. Petersen completed her undergraduate education at Princeton University and received her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She trained in neurosurgery at the University of Texas Southwestern with a fellowship in deep brain stimulation at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. Dr. Petersen serves on the executive committee of the Joint Section on Pain of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS)/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) and on the Executive Board of the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience, where she is president-elect. She serves as associate editor of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery for Operative Neurosurgery and Section Head Editor for Journal of Pain Research. She is on the editorial board of Neuromodulation and contributes as a reviewer for several other journals. Dr. Petersen lectures frequently at national and international meetings on neuromodulation for pain, emerging considerations and uses of neuromodulation, chronic pain management, and deep brain stimulation. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters related to stereotactic and functional neurosurgery and neuroscience.