John M. Stern MD

Dr. John M. Stern is the Director of the Epilepsy Clinical Program and Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also Director of UCLA’s Epilepsy Fellowship Training Program and Medical Director of UCLA’s Seizure Disorder Center.

Dr. Stern’s education includes concurrent bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wesleyan University with a master’s thesis in physical biochemistry. His medical degree is from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, his medical internship was at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, and his neurology residency and epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology fellowship were at UCLA.

Focused on epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology, Dr. Stern maintains an active clinical practice that includes outpatient and inpatient care for seizures and epilepsy. He also has extensive experience as an investigator in clinical research studies and clinical trials related to epilepsy diagnosis and treatment. His publications total more than 300 and include 6 books and more than 180 peer-reviewed research papers, chapters, and reviews. Among the publications, one was awarded best clinical research publication of the year by Epilepsia Open and another was awarded one of the best of the year by Epilepsia. 

For his excellence in teaching, he has received the highest teaching awards from UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine and UCLA’s Department of Neurology. He has lectured widely internationally and in most of the United States, and he has been interviewed by Reuters, National Public Radio, NBC TV, New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and other news organizations. He is a fellow of the American Neurological Association, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Epilepsy Society. He serves as Chair of the American Epilepsy Society’s Treatments Committee on the National Association of Epilepsy Center’s Accreditations Committee, and the editorial board for MedLink Neurology.  He has served on the Professional Advisory Board for the Epilepsy Foundation and the Board of Directors for the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles.