Dr. Stephen Ashwal, MD

Dr. Stephen Ashwal is Distinguished Professor and Chief of the Division of Child Neurology in the Department of Pediatrics at Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, CA. He has been active in the leadership of the Child Neurology Society, the only professional society for child neurologists in the United States and has served in different capacities as President, Secretary/Treasurer, Councilor and Chairperson of multiple committees including the Legislative Affairs, Practice, and Ethics committees. He is a founding member of the Child Neurology Foundation, the foremost group in the United States that advocates for children with neurological disorders and has served on its Executive Board. He is the managing senior editor of the standard textbook in the field of child neurology, Pediatric Neurology: Principles & Practice with the 6th edition published in the spring of 2017, both in print and on-line versions. He also is the author and editor of The Founders of Child Neurology (1990), which is the primary source of information about the development of the field of Pediatric Neurology.

He has been active in the development of child neurology practice guidelines and has served as a  member of the Guideline Development, Dissemination, and Implementation Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology and he has been responsible for development of pediatric guidelines related to brain death, the vegetative state and other disorders of consciousness, as well as guidelines related to the evaluation of children with autism, cerebral palsy, developmental delay, headaches and status epilepticus. His research has involved the use of advanced neuroimaging methods in the evaluation of traumatic brain injury as well as the use of neural stem cells for neonatal hypoxic ischemic brain injury. He has been the recipient of grant funding from the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in areas related to acute neonatal and pediatric brain injury. In 2004, Dr. Ashwal was one of four American neurologists invited to address a conference sponsored by the World Association of Catholic Medical Associations and the Pontifical Academy for Life on the topic of “Life-Sustaining Treatments and the Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas, which concluded with the opportunity for all speakers and their spouses to meet personally with Pope John XXIII. Dr. Ashwal is married for over 50 years to his wife Eileen, has two children and six grandchildren.