Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Britt Stone is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurology’s Movement Disorders division at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She manages adult movement disorder patients, including patients that require botulinum toxin injections and programming for deep brain stimulation, as well as patients in the Huntington’s disease clinic. She has been a member of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology since 2014. She is also a member of the American Herbalist Guild, the Movement Disorders Society, and the American Association of Neurologists.

In addition to her clinical responsibilities, Dr. Stone holds a number of professional leadership positions at VUMC and elsewhere. She is part of the Physician Council for Clinical Service Excellence, the Early Career Council, and the Clinical Operations Director for VUMC’s main campus neurology clinics. She is also part of the Parkinson’s Foundation Fellowship Review Committee, a member of the Advisory Board at Boston Scientific, and an Expert Panelist for the Texas Medical Board. Dr. Stone is currently pursuing an Integrative Medicine Fellowship with the Andrew Weil Center of Integrative Medicine in Tucson, AZ.

Prior to her current position at VUMC, Dr. Stone worked as a neurologist and movement disorders specialist at Baylor Scott & White Healthcare in Round Rock, TX. She trained at the University of Pennsylvania, where she completed neurology residency. She subsequently completed a movement disorders fellowship at Langone Medical Center in New York City. She earned her M.D. from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, and her B.S. in neuroscience from Vanderbilt University.

Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Andrew Giritharan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology’s Movement Disorders division at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also the Assistant Program Director for the Adult Neurology Residency Program and Associate Neurology Clerkship Director for the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Giritharan is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. 

In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Giritharan leads many of the department’s educational programs. He is a trusted debriefer for the Cultivating Increased Resilience in the Clinical Learning Environment (CIRCLE) Program, Master Clinician Teacher, and a Portfolio Coach for the School of Medicine. He participates in the Geoffrey Fleming Academy for Excellence in Education Mentorship Program, and has served as a faculty advisor and mentor for several residents and research candidates. Dr. Giritharan has earned institutional awards such as the Resident Teaching Award, Excellence in Patient Experience Award, and Medical Student Teaching Award.

Dr. Giritharan’s research experience includes clinical studies for drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease. His peer-reviewed articles have been published in such journals as Neurology, Journal of Parkinson’s disease, and Movement Disorders.

Prior to his appointment at VUMC, Dr. Giritharan completed a fellowship in Movement Disorders at Oregon Health & Science University, and, concurrently, the Human Investigations Program at the Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Institute. He earned his M.D. from the University of Missouri School of Medicine, followed by Neurology residency at VUMC where he served as Chief Resident his senior year. He earned his B.S. in Physiology from Southern Illinois University - Carbondale where he graduated summa cum laude.

Dr. Andrew Girithiran, Assistant Professor, will join our Neurosciences team on September 1, 2020.  He will join us in the Movement Disorders Division and he will participate in our Deep Brain Stimulation program.  In addition, he will provide General Neurology services for patients with a variety of neurological problems in the hospital setting.  Dr. Girithiran trained at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he served as Chief Resident and completed his residency in Neurology.   He subsequently completed a Movement Disorders Fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University.

Dr. Chengwen Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center specializing in epilepsy research. Since 2018, his research lab has been working on how brain-states influence and trigger seizure onset with homeostatic synaptic plasticity mechanism and recently on sleep-related activity’s roles in pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s diseases. Dr. Zhou is currently a member of the American Epilepsy Society and the Society for Neuroscience, as well as a reviewer for the Journal of Pediatric Neurology.

Dr. Zhou’s work has been actively supported by the NIH, including major awards funding his studies that address how sleep-related brain activity drives up neuron synaptic plasticity and further triggers seizure onset. This work also explores a novel treatment of seizures due to sleep-related activity engagement in seizure onset.   

Dr. Zhou’s appointment at VUMC began in 2011 as a staff scientist, working on idiopathic generalized epilepsy(IGE) with GABAergic receptor mutation. Prior to his position at VUMC, he completed postdoctoral training at Children’s Hospital Boston and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (both with Harvard Medical School), working on the neuroscience of synaptic plasticity, pediatric epilepsy, and seizure disorders. He earned his PhD from University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 2004 with a focus on Visual Neuroscience, and graduated from Shanghai Institute of Physiology Chinese Academy of Science with a Master’s degree in Neurobiology in 1996. He completed his BS at Southwestern Normal University (China). 

Dr. Holly Westervelt is an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology and Director of Neuropsychological Services for the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is board certified in clinical neuropsychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology.  As a clinical neuropsychologist, she provides comprehensive cognitive assessment and diagnosis of patients experiencing a wide variety of neurological conditions, with particular expertise in degenerative conditions (e.g., mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body disease, frontotemporal dementia), autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis, and metabolic disorders. Dr. Westervelt has served as a supervisor and mentor for medical students, residents, and neuropsychology interns and postdoctoral fellows. 

Dr. Westervelt is a regular editor and reviewer for a number of professional journals and funding institutions, and she was an associate editor for Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology for 8 years. She is a member of several professional organizations, including a fellow for the National Academy of Neuropsychology. 

Prior to her current appointment, Dr. Westervelt was an Associate Professor at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (Providence, RI), and Neuropsychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology also at Brown University School of Medicine and Rhode Island Hospital, following an internship at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Westervelt earned both her BA (summa cum laude) and PhD from at the University at Albany, State University of New York.