Epilepsy Interest Group
The Epilepsy Interest Group aims to provide opportunities for the development of collaborative research projects that involve clinicians, researchers, and students with interest in neuropsychology of paediatric epilepsy. We are committed to developing multi-centre projects to allow for a more sophisticated understanding of outcomes and neuropsychological models of care in this population. We promote the exchange of evidence-based clinical resources, and encourage the development of diagnostic tools and neuropsychological interventions for children with epilepsy.
Committee Members
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Dr Mark Pertini
CO-CHAIR
Mark Pertini is a Senior Clinical Neuropsychologist in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide. He is former Head of Department and Chair of the College of Clinical Neuropsychologists in South Australia. His major interests are neurological disorders in children with a special interest in paediatric epilepsy and functional neurological disorder.
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Dr Linda Gonzalez
CO-CHAIR
Dr Gonzalez is a Clinical Neuropsychologist. She is currently the director of Matrix Neuropsychology, a large private clinic in Melbourne, and holds a sessional appointment at the Royal Children’s Hospital where she works in the Gatehouse Centre for the treatment of sexual abuse. She is also an honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne where she lectures in the post-graduate neuropsychology training program.
Dr Gonzalez has both research and clinical qualifications, and over 25 years experience. She has worked predominantly with children and young people throughout her career and has expertise in neurological and neurodevelopment disorders.
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Dr Anna Mandalis
COMMITTEE MEMBER
Dr Anna Mandalis is a Senior Clinical Neuropsychologist and has been Head of Psychology at Sydney Children’s Hospital for 20 years. Anna currently works clinically with children and young people presenting with various neurological conditions including but not limited to epilepsy, brain tumours and immune mediated encephalopathy. She previously specialised in acquired brain injury, which was the focus of her PhD. Anna has collaborated with Professor Sunny Lah on a range of research studies in paediatric epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. She has 30 years of experience as a Clinical Neuropsychologist and contributed to the paediatric neuropsychology post-graduate training program at Macquarie University for approximately 14 years.
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Dr Michael Gascoigne
COMMITTEE MEMBER
Dr Michael Gascoigne joined the School of Psychology at Western Sydney University (WSU) in September 2021 as a Senior Lecturer. He received a Doctor of Clinical Psychology and PhD in neuropsychology from the University of Sydney in 2014.
Michael’s research interests relate to cognitive deficits in clinical populations. His PhD research examined memory deficits in children with Idiopathic Generalised or Temporal Lobe epilepsy and was carried out at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Michael has been Associate Dean (Research) and director of postgraduate clinical psychology programs at WSU. He is a member of Translational Health Research Institute and International Society for Behavioural Neuroscience.
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George Karapetsas
SECRETARY
George is a current Clinical Neuropsychology Masters student at Macquarie University. He currently works with Dr. Linda Gonzalez at Matrix Neuropsychology triaging referrals and taking client histories. In addition, he has been the secretary for the APNRN Epilepsy Interest Group since 2022 and is involved in organising meetings, documenting minutes for the interest group and assisting with epilepsy research.
His research interests include epilepsy, concussions, consciousness and neurodevelopmental conditions.
Professor Suncica “Sunny” Lah
Immediate Past Chair of the Epilepsy Interest Group
Professor Lah is a Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. She is a researcher, teacher, and Clinical Neuropsychologist. She is a past chair of the APNRN Epilepsy Interest Group and the Neuropsychology Interest Group of the American Epilepsy Society. She also teaches psychological assessment, neuropsychology, and neuropsychological rehabilitation at the University of Sydney.
Professor Lah’s career has spanned over 3 decades and 2 continents (Europe and Australia). She has developed an applied, collaborative, research program that has predominantly involved children with epilepsy and children with traumatic brain injury, their families and clinicians working with these clinical populations. She has published 114 peer-reviewed manuscripts and provided supervision to more than 150 students, including supervising research of 24 doctoral students to completion.
Her research aims to understand mechanisms of neurocognitive disorders, develop instruments for assessment of these disorders, as well as rehabilitation programs. Her main area of interest includes memory and memory disorders. Recently, she has developed interest in social cognition and sleep.