The Department of Neurology is pleased to welcome the following faculty members, effective July 1, 2020. The department is proud to be a world leader in neurological research and education, and we are confident that our new faculty members will continue our tradition of training future leaders in neurology. Learn more about them below:
Rachel Beekman: Assistant Professor of Neurology – Neurocritical Care and Emergency Neurology
Dr. Rachel Beekman, MD - Dr. Beekman began her medical training in her home state of New York at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, but has since relocated to New Haven, where she completed her neurology residency at Yale New Haven Hospital. She is the first Yale alumna to continue as faculty in the department of neurocritical care. She has a passion for treating survivors of cardiac arrest and hopes to develop a multidisciplinary cardiac arrest program. In her spare time, she loves being mom to her two young boys and spending family time at all the beautiful Connecticut parks.
David King-Stephens: Professor of Clinical Neurology –Epilepsy
Dr. David King-Stephens, MD -Dr. King-Stephens is a neurologist with expertise in epilepsy. As a native of Mexico, he went to medical school at Universidad La Salle, completed a neurology residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York and an epilepsy fellowship at Yale University. Before moving to San Francisco, where he was his a founding member and medical director at Sutter Pacific Epilepsy Program, he was a faculty member of the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. His main areas of interest are the surgical treatment of intractable epilepsy, intracranial EEG and neuromodulation. He has served as principal investigator in several clinical trials using anticonvulsant medications and devices to treat patients with refractory epilepsy. He is on the editorial board of Epilepsy Currents and has published in multiple journals including Epilepsia, Neurology and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. He enjoys swimming, bike riding and sculpting.
Christian Amlang: Instructor of Clinical Neurology –General Neurology
Dr. Amlang completed Medical School in his home country Germany at the Charité in Berlin as well as at the Université Paris Descartes and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. Fascinated by neurology and movement disorders in particular, he trained at various distinguished neurologic institutes around the globe including in Chicago, Dublin, Paris and Berlin. During that time, his research interest in pathophysiologic processes in movement disorders such as visuospatial perception in cervical dystonia developed. After medical school, Dr. Amlang completed residency at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx and Yale New Haven Hospital before joining the Yale Department of Neurology as a neuro-hospitalist. He is an avid reader and passionate traveler.
Ylec Mariana Cardenas Castillo: Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology – Neuromuscular Medicine
Dr. Ylec Mariana Cardenas Castillo is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology and a Neuromuscular Disorders Specialist. Her educational background includes a Baccalaureus Scientiae (BS) Degree obtained at the Pennsionat de Soeurs de Saint-Joseph Tarbes, Medical School Diploma from Universidad Central de Venezuela. She completed her internship in Internal Medicine and Residency in Neurology at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and, her fellowship in Neuromuscular Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. She is board certified in Neurology (2019) by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (A.B.P.N.). Her research interests include: autoimmune neuromuscular disorders particularly immune-mediated neuropathies. In her spare time, she likes to spend time with her family and friends, paint, travel and go on camping and hiking trips.
Pablo Bravo Valenzuela: Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology –Stroke and Vascular Neurology
Dr. Bravo is originally from Colombia, where he received his medical degree from the Universidad del Valle School of Medicine. He then completed a neurology residency at Washington University in St Louis followed by a dual fellowship in neurocritical care and vascular neurology at Stanford. Given his great passion for inpatient neurology, he spent the following 5 years of his career providing care in Marshfield Clinic, a tertiary medical center in Central Wisconsin affiliated with the University of Wisconsin, where he had the great privilege of providing neurological care to an underserved rural population. During his time in Wisconsin, he appreciated the need to expand his skills in inpatient neurology by mastering the interpretation of inpatient EEGs. Therefore, he recently completed a Critical Care EEG fellowship at Yale, ultimately joining the Department of Neurology, where he would like to continue to grow as a neurohospitalist as well as to contribute to the expansion of the different neurology inpatient services within Yale New Haven Health System.
Rachel Forman: Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology –Stroke and Vascular Neurology
Rachel Forman spent most of her medical training in Chicago where she attended Chicago Medical School and then went on to complete her medicine internship and neurology residency at Rush University Medical Center. She then completed her vascular neurology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Rachel has been committed to providing stroke community education since she was a medical student. She has set up various groups that connect with the local communities in Chicago and Boston, focusing on underserved areas, to provide education about stroke risk factors, recognizing warning signs, and the importance of timely care. She is excited to continue this work with the New Haven community and plans to pursue related research in primary stroke prevention. In her spare time Rachel enjoys trying new restaurants, going for hikes with her dog (Hank), and snowboarding.