As a Level 4 epilepsy center, we provide all available epilepsy services. Our expert team consists of epileptologists (neurologists specialized in epilepsy), neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, neuropsychologists and physician assistants, along with dedicated epilepsy nurses and research coordinators.
Our team cares for both adults and children with epilepsy, the latter at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
During her fellowship in epilepsy at USC, she was the co-principal investigator on one of the world’s largest vagal nerve stimulation trials, gaining experience in the first device invented to treat epilepsy. She cares for epilepsy patients with surgical and novel approaches, including gamma knife radiosurgery and responsive neurostimulation. She forged collaborations with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and California Institute of Technology to foster projects that focus on the interaction between the brain and machines. She serves on the advisory board of the Coulter Program at USC Viterbi, as well as on the faculty of the HTE@USC, a biomedical engineering collaborative effort between the Viterbi School of Engineering and Keck School of Medicine.
In 2005, Heck received a master’s degree in medical management degree from the USC Marshall School of Business. She participates in a variety of leadership and lobbying roles. She volunteers for the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles, served as a board member from 2010 to 2012 and a member of its Professional Advisory Board. In 2012, she was elected to the Professional Advisory Board of the national Epilepsy Foundation. She served as board member for the National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC) from 2009 to 2011.
He serves as the surgical director of the USC Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and co-director of the USC Pituitary Center. He also serves as chief of Neurosurgery and Spine at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Medical Center, and is a guest professor in Neurosurgery at Hua Shan Hospital, Fudan University School of Medicine in Shanghai. His principal research interests relate to restorative neurosurgery, elucidating strategies to restore function to the nervous system after injury due to trauma, stroke, or neurodegenerative disease. These strategies include surgical, technological (i.e. advanced neuroprostheses, robotics), as well as biological (i.e. stem cell transplantation). He has won numerous awards for his research and has contributed extensively to the published literature. He has also given numerous lectures nationally and internationally. He recently received a $1 million research grant to study neurostimulation and temporal lobe epilepsy with collaborators in neurology and biomedical engineering. He serves as assistant editor on the Editorial Board of World Neurosurgery. He also serves as a principal neurosurgical consultant for the NCAA Division I USC Trojans.