2023 Elections: Candidate Statement for WFN Treasurer

Barbara Tettenborn

My name is Barbara Tettenborn, I am Professor of Neurology in Switzerland and Germany with both citizenships. I was born in Halle/Saale in East-Germany, spent my later childhood and youth in West-Berlin in Germany, studied medicine in Germany, England and Ireland and passed my neurological residency at the University Hospital in Mainz/Germany (Head of Department Prof. H.C. Hopf) followed by a stroke fellowship with Prof. L.R. Caplan in Boston/USA.

I am a general neurologist with special interests in epilepsy, stroke, sports neurology and brain health. After more than 5 years as vice chair of the department of Neurology in Mainz I was elected as head of the department of neurology in St.Gallen, Switzerland, in October 1999 and kept this position until my retirement in March 2023. I am still affiliated with the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz as professor of neurology continuing to give lectures and teaching courses on a regular basis.

I am a very active member of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) as Editor-in-chief of e-Learning. Together with a great team from the EAN and the editorial board we built up the new e-learning platform in 2021/2022 which was launched at the EAN annual meeting in Vienna last summer.

Regarding my experience in administrative boards: I was member of the board of the Swiss Neurological Society for more than 8 years and treasurer of the Swiss Federation of Clinical Neuro-Societies for more than 4 years until the end of 2022. I served as a member of the administrative board at the hospital in St.Gallen for 4 years. Currently, I am president of the Swiss League against Epilepsy and president of the organisation Women in Neurology (WIN) Switzerland. Additionally, I am vice president of the scientific board of highly specialized medicine in Switzerland.

My special research interests are epilepsy in the elderly, seizures due to vascular lesions, new antiepileptic drugs, vertebrobasilar ischemia, gender aspects in neurology and sports neurology. I am author and co-author of numerous publications and editor and co-editor of several textbooks of neurology including ‘Paroxysmal disorders in neurology’ and ‘Sport as prevention and therapy of neurological and psychiatric disorders’.

Neurology is not only my profession but also my first and most favourite hobby, my second hobby being sport, especially triathlon and mountaineering. I like to cooperate and communicate with people and to encourage especially the next generation. Being recently retired from my position as head of department gives me the time and energy to take on new tasks. I have quite a lot of experience in administrative positions and political communication including the position of treasurer of a large national society for several years. It would be a great honour for me to serve the World Federation of Neurology as treasurer and I promise to put all my energy, enthusiasm, time and effort into this position in order to help to give neurology as much worldwide visibility and impact as possible.