Rebecca Erwin Wells MD, MPH

Dr. Rebecca Erwin Wells is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at Wake Forest Baptist, where she founded and directs the Comprehensive Headache Program. She graduated with the highest honors from UNC-Chapel Hill, received her MD from East Carolina-Brody School of Medicine, then completed an Internship and Neurology residency at the University of Virginia. After residency, she completed a 3-year research fellowship in Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and obtained a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. She went on to a second fellowship in Headache Medicine at Harvard’s John R. Graham Headache Center. Dr. Wells has been a “Best Doctor of America” since 2015. She is Vice President of the Southern Headache Society and on the Board of Directors of the American Headache Society. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce for the American Headache Society. She received the American Headache Society Early Career Lecture Award for her research on the patient voice in migraine and the American Academy of Neurology’s Wolff-Graham award for recognition of her outstanding achievements in headache/facial pain research. Her research investigates the mechanisms and efficacy of mind/body treatments for headaches, which often receive media attention, including interviews with Time magazine, NPR, BBC News, Boston Globe, and Prevention magazine. She presents to national and international audiences as an expert in headache, mind/body, and integrative medicine. She has received funding from NIH, National Headache Foundation, and the American Pain Society for her research. As a trained mindfulness meditation instructor, she has led mindfulness sessions virtually with worldwide participants during the pandemic.