Dr. Sonja Chaparala is an Assistant Professor of Neurology specializing in stroke care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is a current member of the American Academy of Neurology and certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. 

Prior to her current appointment, Dr. Chaparala completed a fellowship in Vascular Neurology at Tufts Medical Center (Boston, MA), following her Neurology residency at Allegheny Health Network (Pittsburgh, PA), during which she served as Chief Resident her final year. During her residency, she participated in a number of research and quality improvement projects, particularly regarding acute stroke care. She earned her doctor of medicine from St. George’s University School of Medicine (Grenada, MD), and her BS in Anthropology (magna cum laude) from Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA). 

Holly Cannon is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse in the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, specializing in Neuromuscular, a position she has held since 2019. She is an active member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Prior to her current role, Holly worked as a Registered Nurse in Vanderbilt’s Neuro Intensive Care Unit and the Neurosurgery Ambulatory Clinic. She also gained several years of nursing experience in the neuroscience field in various institutions before beginning at Vanderbilt in 2015. 

Holly received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2010 from Middle Tennessee State University. While working in the Neuro ICU, she went back to MTSU and earned her Master of Science in Nursing Advanced Practice in 2018. She is a member of AANEM.

Kiersten Brown Espaillat is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse currently serving as the Stroke Program Manager at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In her role, which she has held since 2017, she fulfills a variety of educational and administrative duties that elevate stroke patient care, follow-up, and preventions. Dr. Brown Espaillat presents monthly lectures to medical residents, nurses, advanced practice providers, and emergency medical services on topics including anatomy and physiology of stroke, recognition of stroke, and treatment of acute stroke. She has served as an organizer and lecturer for the annual Harold Jobe Bernard Stroke and Neuroscience Symposium since 2012. 

Dr. Brown Espaillat participates in a number of professional organizations and committees, including the American Heart Association Greater Southeast Affiliate Board and related committees, both the Steering and Outreach committees of the EMS Center of Excellence, Sigma Beta Thau among others. She has received recognition for her work on stroke legislation in the state of Tennessee by the American Heart Association. In 2019, she received VUMC’s Jerita Payne Advanced Practice Nurse of the Year Award. 

Dr. Brown Espaillat began her career at VUMC in 2011, first as a Neuroscience Educator then as Stroke Coordinator before moving into her present role. She earned her DNP in 2013 from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, following her MSN, which she received from the Vanderbilt School of Nursing. She obtained a BS in Education from Vanderbilt University prior to her nursing career. 

Dr. Brown joined the Vanderbilt Neurology Department in 2013 in the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology. As a clinical neuropsychologist, she works with adult patients with known or suspected neurodegenerative conditions and stroke. She provides comprehensive neurocognitive evaluations at the One Hundred Oaks Campus of VUMC.

After earning an undergraduate degree in psychology from Williams College summa cum laude, Dr. Brown worked as a research associate at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. She then earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology (with specializations in aging and neuropsychology) from Washington University in St. Louis where she was awarded the Olin Fellowship for Women. She completed her clinical internship and post-doctoral fellowship at Brown University Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island. She has been a licensed clinical psychologist since 2005. Since that time, she has practiced in both private and academic hospital settings. 

Dr. Brown is a member of the National Academy of Neuropsychology and the International Neuropsychological Society.

Dr. Brown is a Professor of Neurology at Vanderbilt and the Executive Medical Director of the Neuroscience Patient Care Center for VUMC. Dr. Brown has Certification from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Sleep Medicine (2011), Neurology (2013), and Epilepsy (2013) and from the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine (1999). 

She received her undergraduate degree from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.  She received her Doctor of Medicine from Drexel University, Center City Hahemann Medical Campus in 1996. The following year, she completed her internship at Thomas Jefferson University Medical Center. Subsequently, she completed an Internal Medicine residency at Pennsylvania State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. She then completed a Neurology residency at Washington University Medical Center in 2002, where she was also Chief Resident. In 2003, she completed a fellowship in Epilepsy, also at Washington University Medical Center, and in 2009, she completed a fellowship in Sleep Medicine at Taylor Hospital in Pennsylvania.

Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Brown is a movement disorder specialist who is licensed to practice medicine in Tennessee and Kentucky, and has been a member of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology since 2019. She joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty in July 2019 as a postgraduate movement disorders fellowship and has stayed on as an Assistant Professor.  She is the director of the VUMC CurePSP Center of Care.  

Dr. Brown has obtained several honors, including induction to the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2014 and participating in the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum in 2019. She has also advocated for her patients with the AAN Neurology on the Hill and participates with local medical societies.  

Dr. Brown is a Chicago-native who earned a BA in Biology and History in 2009 from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, OH. She then completed a Master’s in Science in Biology with a focus on neurobehavior at CWRU in 2011. She attended University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine in Chicago, IL, where she earned her MD in 2015. She completed her neurology residency at Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL.  

Jeri Braunlin is an Advanced Practice Nurse at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the Department of Neurology. She is the Program Manager for the C3FIT (Coordinated, Collaborative, Comprehensive, Family-based, Integrated, and Technology-enabled Care) study and works also in the stroke clinic. She is frequently invited to present neuroscience and cerebrovascular disease lectures for both professionals and the general public. She recently spoke at the 2020 International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles and presented “Transitions of Care: Nursing Roles Stroke Central and Stroke Mobile.”

Prior to her appointment at Vanderbilt, Dr. Braunlin served in various clinical and educational roles in other hospital systems. She developed and managed two hospital system stroke programs, served in quality management, and was a member of the Kettering Medical Center IRB for 13 years. Most recently she provided follow-up care in the Stroke Clinic at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio and managed the Neuroscience Stroke Program of research. She is a board-certified Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS, BC) and Nurse Executive (NEA, BC), in addition to certifications in Neuroscience (CNRN).

Dr. Braunlin received her RN from the Mount Caramel School of Nursing and her BSN from Capital University. She completed her MSN from The Ohio State University College of Nursing, followed by a second Master of Science in Nursing degree from Wright State University College of Nursing in Adult Health. She earned her Doctorate of Nursing in 2017, also from Wright State, with a capstone project entitled, “Feasibility and Accuracy of Predicting Stroke Severity in the Field.”

Dr. Francesca Bagnato is a dual-board (European and American) neurology certified physician, currently on faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Bagnato is a general neurologist with special interest in neuroimmunological conditions. She is licensed to practice medicine in Tennessee and Kentucky. She sees patients with neuroimmunological diseases at the Neuroimmunology Clinic of Vanderbilt University Medical Center as well as the Nashville VA HealthCare system. She joined Vanderbilt in October 2015 after serving as staff scientist at the NIH. She was recruited to establish the neuroimaging program of the neuroimmunology division.

Dr. Bagnato routinely serves Research Advisory Committees such as that of of the Italian MS Society, the British MS Society, the National Institutes of Health, the Veteran Administration, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (Neuroimaging) and Department of Defense. She is a standing member of the Clinical Pilot Research Committee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the TN/KY Healthcare Advisory Committee National Multiple Sclerosis Society (HAC-NMSS) and the National Medical Advisory Committee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMAC-NMSS). She is an ad hoc member of several NIH Study Sections and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (Neuroimaging). Dr. Bagnato is the Director of Research-MSCoE-East for the Veteran Administration. She is the author of more than 100 publications, has delivered numerous talks around the world and she is a member of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Neurological Association.

Dr. Bagnato has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Special Award for Performance Management Appraisal Program (HHS Employee Performance Plans) of NIH; the NIH-Post Baccalaureate IRTA Committee Award in Recognition of the Outstanding Contributions to the Education and Guidance of Post Baccalaureate Trainers; the NIH-NINDS Merit Award for Mentoring; and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Healthcare Professional Champion Award for her work in MS Research, Education, and as a Healthcare Provider Serving Those in the Community.

Dr. Bagnato earned a medical degree at the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1996. She accomplished a dual European and American Residency in Neurology, which she completed at the University of Rome La Sapienza and the University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD. She earned a PhD in neuroscience which she completed while performing her studies at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD in 2006. 

Dr. Bagai is Professor of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She joined the Neurology faculty at VUMC as a Clinical Instructor in 2004 and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2005. She has been serving as Director of the Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program at Vanderbilt since 2011. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017 and Professor in 2023. She is involved in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders, and in teaching medical students, neurology residents and sleep medicine fellows.

She is board certified in Clinical Neurology, Diplomate of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and has also received certification in Sleep Medicine through the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN).

Dr. Bagai received her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Delhi, New Delhi, India in 1995. She spent two years as a research assistant at the Rush Cancer Institute, Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s University in Chicago, IL and the Department of Neurology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Bagai completed her internship in Internal Medicine at the Rush Westlake Hospital, affiliated with the Rush University, Chicago, IL from 1998-99. This was followed by a residency in Adult Clinical Neurology at Loyola University Medical Center and the Edward Hines VA, Maywood, IL from 1999-2002. She served as Chief Resident in her final year of residency. She joined Vanderbilt as a fellow in Clinical Neurophysiology and Sleep Medicine in 2002. In 2010, she earned a Masters in Science and Clinical Investigation degree from Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Derek Archer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) working in the Vanderbilt Memory & Alzheimer’s Center. Prior to his appointment in the department, he obtained his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (2012) and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida conducting neuroimaging research (2016). Throughout his time at the University of Florida, he focused on the structural and functional differences exhibited in a variety of neurological disorders, including chronic stroke, essential tremor, and Parkinsonism. Throughout his career, he has received funding from the NIH and the Parkinson’s Foundation.