Julie G. Pilitsis, MD, PhD, MBA, is Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at University of Arizona Tucson and the Physician Executive for Functional Neurosurgery for Banner Health System. She is also co-founder of AiM Medical Robotics and is Chair of the Medical Advisory Board. Previously, she served as Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs Strategic Initiatives at Florida Atlantic University where she led the FAU Health Network initiative. Dr. Pilitsis also previously served as division chief of functional neurosurgery and chair and professor of the neuroscience department at Albany Medical College in New York. Over these roles, Dr. Pilitsis has maintained a busy functional neurosurgery practice and built a program from the ground up at each institution where she worked. She maintains an NIH sponsored research program focused on device optimization for neuromodulation with three active grants and has published over 250 journal articles, five textbooks, and numerous chapters. She was the president of the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS), a 2000-member organization in 2023. She is the president of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ASSFN) from 2024 – 2026. She was previous chair of the AANS/CNS Section on WIN and on Pain.