Presenter: Michelle Powell Kvalsund

Biography: Michelle Kvalsund is a neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist with special interests in tropical neurology and global health. She received degrees in epidemiology and medicine from Michigan State University in 2008 and 2009, respectively. She completed neurology residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2013, after which she returned to her global health roots at Michigan State University and undertook additional subspecialty training in clinical neurophysiology and neuroepidemiology. As an assistant professor of neurology and director of adult global neurology initiatives for the MSU Department of Neurology’s International Neurologic & Psychiatric Epidemiology Program (INPEP), Dr. Kvalsund spends 9 months annually in Lusaka, Zambia conducting research on neuromuscular genetic disorders, acute flaccid paralyses, and distal symmetric polyneuropathies. While in Lusaka, she holds an adjunct appointment as visiting lecturer at the University of Zambia School of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine, serves as teaching faculty for the country’s first neurology residency program, and is the founding director of the University Teaching Hospital Electromyography Lab.