Joseph I. Sirven, MD, FAAn

Joseph (Joe) I. Sirven, MD, FAAN, is professor of neurology and chair emeritus of the Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and currently practicing at Mayo Clinic in Florida. He is editor-in-chief of Brain & Life^® en Español and on the editorial board of the English language Brain & Life^®. He is currently chair of the AAN Education Committee. Previously, he served as director of education for Mayo Clinic Arizona with oversight over all educational activities at the Mayo Clinic Arizona campus, including medical student rotations, residencies, fellowships, PhD candidates, nursing, allied health, and continuing medical education programs.

In addition to being a neurologist, Sirven is a certified aviation medical examiner and a consultant to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) on pilot and passenger health. Sirven is a professor of practice in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University, where he teaches science of health care delivery to both undergraduate and graduate students.

He previously served as chair of the AAN Education Conference Subcommittee and served on the Board of Directors for the American Brain Foundation. He was the previous vice chair of the Epilepsy Section of the American Academy of Neurology, chair of the Communication Council for the American Epilepsy Society, and former chair of the Professional Advisory Board for the Epilepsy Foundation.

Sirven is a bilingual Cuban American and served as chief medical contributor for NBC Latino, the English language website for Latinos by NBC News. He is currently host of “What’s Health Got to Do with It?” on WJCT-NPR North Florida. Previously, he served as the medical commentator for KJZZ radio in Phoenix, the NPR affiliate for Phoenix and Tucson Arizona, in addition to KTBS TV 3.

Sirven has published extensively on epilepsy and its treatment. He is editor of nine textbooks including Clinical Neurology of the Older Adult, the American Epilepsy Society’s Introduction to Epilepsy, Clinical Epilepsy, An Atlas of Video EEG Monitoring, Case Studies in Epilepsy, The Social Determinants of Health in Epilepsy and Epilepsy. He is currently a Neurology Core Clerkship director for Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Dartmouth Medical School.