Dr. Curt LaFrance will be our keynote speaker on Friday evening offering his unique perspective on our conference theme from his field of expertise. Those participants who attended the conference in 2014 were deeply appreciative of his contribution at that event. This year we are setting aside a whole evening to hear from Curt and engage with him in conversation related to his presentation. Additional information on Dr. LaFrance's background and research interests is provided below.
W. Curt LaFrance, Jr., MD, MPH, FAAN, FANPA, DFAPA, is the Director of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology at Rhode Island Hospital (RIH) and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at Alpert Medical School, Brown University. He is the neuropsychiatrist for the RIH Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, Staff Physician at the Providence VAMC, and a faculty member of the Brown Institute for Brain Science.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Wake Forest University, his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia, and his Master of Public Health degree from Brown University. He completed the combined residency in neurology and psychiatry at Brown, and he is boarded in both neurology and in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. After residency, he completed a Clinical Research Fellowship in Combined Treatments at Brown University with an institutional NIH T-32 National Research Service Award.
He is the recipient of the American Neuropsychiatric Association’s Career Development Award and the AAN’s Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award. He serves on the Epilepsy Foundation (EF) Professional Advisory Board, chaired American Epilepsy Society (AES) and International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Task Forces, and is a steward for the AES/NINDS Epilepsy Benchmarks. He has received grants from the EF, AES, Siravo Foundation, the VA and an NINDS K23 Award for treatment of nonepileptic seizures (5K23 NS045902). He has served as research advisor or mentor to over 60 psychiatry, neurology and neuropsychiatry residents, faculty and undergraduates in neurobiology and psychology since 2004. He trains clinicians around the country using distance supervision in treatment delivery for seizures and somatoform disorders.
His research interests focus on treatment developments and biomarkers of neuropsychiatric aspects of epilepsy, conversion disorders and TBI. A goal of his work at Brown, nationally and internationally has been to bridge neurology and psychiatry clinical practice and scientific research and to dissolve arbitrary boundaries between the two fields.
