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.

Dr. Lealani Mae (Leah) Acosta is an Associate Professor of Neurology and a board-certified neurologist specializing in neurodegenerative memory disorders. Currently she serves as co-editor of the Humanities section of the journal Neurology. Dr. Acosta joined the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine faculty in 2013. She completed graduate studies, obtaining a master's in public health at Vanderbilt, with her research focused on error frequency and quality in a task of semantic fluency in patients with mild cognitive impairment. 

She attended The George Washington University, graduating summa cum laude in psychology. She completed graduate studies in psychology, philosophy, and physiology at Oxford University in Oxford, UK. On returning to the United States, she finished both her medical education and residency training in Neurology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. She completed fellowship in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL, under the mentorship of Dr. Kenneth Heilman, focusing on creativity. Her interest in this topic stems in part from her own hobbies of poetry, drawing, and calligraphy. Her range of publications reflects these varied interests, including peer-reviewed research articles and creative writing, primarily poetry.

Dr. Abou-Khalil is Professor of Neurology and Director of the Epilepsy Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is board certified in Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology, and Epilepsy. He is founder and Director of the Vanderbilt Epilepsy Monitoring Unit and Clinical Epilepsy Program and was the founding director of the Vanderbilt Clinical Neurophysiology Training Program, which was accredited by ACGME in 1996. Dr. Abou-Khalil is a member of the American Neurological Association, a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (Epilepsy Section), a fellow of the American Epilepsy Society, and a fellow of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society.

Dr. Abou-Khalil earned both his B.S. and his medical degree (1978) at the American University of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon. He completed an internship and one year of residency in Internal Medicine at the American University Medical Center in Beirut. He completed his neurology residency and EEG and epilepsy fellowship at the University of Michigan Medical Center in 1985 and then was a post-doctoral fellow in Clinical Neurophysiology at the Montreal Neurologic Institute in Montreal, Quebec in 1986.