Program Graduate Profiles

Mahjabeen Ahmed Khan, M.D.

Fellowship: Baylor College of Medicine, Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship
Hometown: Bangalore, India 
Medical School: Kasturba Medical College

Outside hobbies/interests: Trying out new restaurants, Shopping, Travel, Bollywood movies

Professional interests: Epilepsy, Neonatal neurology
What I like about our residency program: Saint Louis University provides a very stimulating environment and has added a lot to my personal and professional growth as a physician. I really appreciate the team approach to patient care and dedication towards putting patient care first 
What I like about Saint Louis: Love the small town feel to it. Forest Park is great!

Joseph Collins, M.D.

Fellowship: SSM/Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Sleep Medicine Fellowship
Hometown: Evanston, Illinois
Medical School: University of Toledo College of Medicine

Outside hobbies/interests: Playing tennis, watching sports, Movies, outdoor activities
Professional interests: Epilepsy

What I like about our residency program: The faculty, residents, and fellows are all pleasant and smart people that are easy to work with. St. Louis is a fun city.

What I like about St. Louis: St. Louis is an impressive, diverse city with lots of restaurants and breweries. It has good weather for most of the year. Forest Park is amazing! Also, housing is surprisingly affordable.

Srishti Sharma, M.D.

Practice: Anderson Medical Group in Illinois
Hometown: St. Louis
Medical School: Saint Louis University School of Medicine

Outside hobbies/interests: Being a dog mom, baking, spinning
Professional interests: Epilepsy

What I like about our residency program: I was first exposed to the program as a med student at SLU - I felt very supported by the faculty and noticed that teaching was always a priority. I still feel the same way as a resident. Could not be happier with my decision.

What I like about St. Louis: It’s not too small or too big of a city. There’s plenty to do indoors and outdoors. The restaurant scene is growing as well.

Maxwell Wallace, M.D.

Practice: SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital
Hometown: Palatine, Illinois
Medical School: Saint Louis University School of Medicine

Outside hobbies/interests: I do some stand up comedy, and I have a salt water aquarium.  I also enjoy playing video games and board games.
Professional interests: I am interested in movement disorders and medical education.

What I like about our residency program: I chose to do my residency at SLU because by the end of the residency, the trainees seemed very competent and confident in their ability to take care of neurology patients. We get exposure to a wide variety of neurologic conditions.  I also liked the attendings.  I feel like they make our education a top priority.

What I like about St. Louis: St. Louis is big enough that it has a huge variety of restaurants and things to do, but not so big that it feels overcrowded or overwhelming.  It is also a relatively cheap place to live.

Lisa Akiyama, M.D.

Practice: Seattle Children’s Hospital

Post-graduation Fellowship: Pediatric Epilepsy, University of Washington

What I liked about our residency program: Given the smaller division size with no fellows, we get to work very closely with each of our attendings, who are all phenomenal mentors, on all interesting and perplexing cases we encounter in outpatient and inpatient settings. Our attendings definitely make education and our wellbeing top priority. We have the opportunity to read a lot of routine and continuous EEGs during residency, which is a huge plus for everyone, particularly for those with special interests in epilepsy. We have an amazing group of clinical nurses and staff members who help us out with phone calls, letters, orders, and scheduling - I don't know what I would do without them! 

What I liked about St. Louis: It is a fun and affordable city to live in for trainees and young families. There are amazing parks all over the region. The food scene in St. Louis is actually quite diverse and full of surprises!

Sundeep Mandava, M.D.

Private Practice in Texas

Post-graduation Fellowship: Pediatric Epilepsy, Baylor College of Medicine

What I liked about our residency program: The attendings are all really great to work with. From a pediatric perspective, I really liked the medium sized program and the ability to get to know my coworkers really well.

What I liked about St. Louis: I liked all of the free things available in the city - the parks, the art museum, the zoo. There are a lot of really great restaurants in the area.

Bryan Mendes, M.D.

Private practice in Minnesota

Post-graduation fellowship: Pediatric Epilepsy, Children's Hospital Colorado

What you liked about the program: I like to think of Cardinal Glennon as a "sweet spot" program. The hospital has more than enough volume to provide a wide assortment of pathology and patient demographics, but is not too big as to feel like I was just another resident lost in the group. I felt totally confident I had all the training I needed to prepare me for fellowship. Additionally, there are many areas (particularly regarding our comfort in reading inpatient EEGs) where I felt I was better prepared than many other programs. 

Perhaps the biggest surprise, and one of the things I feel most grateful to Cardinal Glennon for, is my exposure to a diverse patient population. Before starting residency, I was certainly aware of social determinants of health as a concept. However, as someone who was born and raised in an upper-middle-class background, I deeply feel that one needs to work directly with a population before you can hope to understand their perspective. I would not have had this opportunity had I chosen other programs, and I am a far better physician because of this experience at Cardinal Glennon.

What you liked about St. Louis: In each of the five years I spent in St. Louis, I found more and more things to love about the city. There are many different neighborhoods with their own distinctive style, you're bound to find your place. Additionally, on a resident's salary, I was able to afford a truly amazing apartment, which I could not hope to afford in other cities.

Currently practicing at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital

Post-graduation fellowship: Pediatric Headache, University of California San Francisco

What you liked about the program: The team was really a family, providing a great balance of support and independence. I always felt like I could ask questions, but as I felt more confident I was given the freedom to make decisions and guide care (even if my plan wasn't the same as the initial plan of my attending). By the time I graduated I felt prepared to answer most questions posed by other physicians, guide care for most patients with a wide variety of illnesses, and even read EEGs. I looked forward to coming in to work almost every day, and felt like my voice made a real difference as to how things were done throughout the program and within my own education. And I genuinely felt like everyone I worked with really knew me and cared about me and my well being.

What you liked about St. Louis: St. Louis is really a big little city. I came to St. Louis from California, and was pleasantly surprised by how diverse and open the entire city is! I could easily find food from a wide variety of different cultures. I also easily found communities outside of the hospital (including dance and music), and was welcomed with open arms. There are a ton of different groups within the city, anyone can easily find their niche. St. Louis really became home during my time there.

Neel Parikh, M.D.

Post-graduation fellowship: Pediatric Epilepsy, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Currently Practicing: Junior Faculty Pediatric Neurologist, John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital

What you liked about the program: Cardinal Glennon pediatrics and child neurology programs are perfect size residency programs that one gets individualized attention. The residents have full autonomy with appropriate supervision which creates a comfortable environment for learning. A resident gets to see various types of pathologies and complications to manage. All the attendings and staff are welcoming, caring and eager to teach. They encourage lifelong learning and help create skill sets to be successful once done with residency. I will highly recommend this program if my friend or sibling wants to be a good physician and achieve a great learning experience.

What you liked about St. Louis: My wife is from Las Vegas and I am from New York so at first, we were skeptical that we may not like the city, but we were wrong. There is so much to do in St. Louis city and there are so many hidden gems of restaurants if you like to eat out. For us, it was almost like a scavenger hunt to find really cool restaurants and try different cuisines. We love Forest Park, which has lots of activity for adults and kids throughout the year. We have spent lots of family time in the beautiful Forest Park and have visited wineries which are close driving distance. It is not too large or too small of a city and the international airport has mostly direct flights to any major cities and it is never crowded. The city is spread out and never feels crowded and people are really friendly. I love St. Louis. House prices are reasonable and it is one of the growing cities in the Midwest. I would highly recommend it for someone who likes less traffic, nice friendly people eating out and the outdoors.

Other comments: If I have to do it again, I would choose the Saint Louis University child neurology residency program.

Vikram Prakash, M.D.

Currently Practicing: Pediatric Neurologist, Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, Florida

What you liked about the program: Well-rounded experience in all subspecialties of child neurology. Wonderful adult neurology program to start the neurology portion of the residency. Gret hands-on experience in resident continuity clinics. Well-structured rotations with built-in flexibility. 

What you liked about St. Louis: A great city to live in with a reasonable cost of living