Dr. Julia Jacobs-LeVan appointed Assistant Dean, Postdoctoral Research

The Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Julia Jacobs-LeVan, MD, PhD, as the new assistant dean, Postdoctoral Research. The appointment is effective as of Nov. 1.

Dr. Jacobs-LeVan is a pediatric neurologist at the Alberta Children's Hospital and an associate professor in the departments of Paediatrics and Clinical Neurosciences at the CSM. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

In this new role with the CSM, she will prepare strategies and implement programs to support postdoctoral trainees in obtaining competitive postdoctoral scholarship awards. She will be a member of the grants team of the office of the associate dean, Research.

Dr. Jacobs-LeVan came to Calgary from Freiburg, Germany, in 2019 to direct the Alberta Children’s Epilepsy Program. She had been the interim director of the Department of Pediatric Neurology and Muscular Disease and the head of the Pediatric Epilepsy Program at the University Medical Center, Freiburg.

Dr. Jacobs-LeVan completed both a medical degree and doctorate at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, and a master’s degree in public health at the University of London, UK. She held a combined clinical and research fellowship in epilepsy at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University.

Dr. Jacobs-LeVan specializes in personalized treatment and care for children affected by seizures and epilepsy, with a focus on helping families manage difficult-to-control, refractory seizures. She is involved in clinical trials of new anti-seizure treatments, including those that target rare genetic epilepsies. She is currently focused on the early identification of children who are at risk of developing epilepsy after a first seizure or traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Jacobs-LeVan has been a researcher for more than a decade and is an associate editor for the journal Epilepsia and the Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology. She is a member of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research College of Reviewers and a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society. She also serves on the board of directors for the Epilepsy Association of Calgary and the Janus Academy.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Jacobs-LeVan on her new appointment.

Sincerely,

Todd Anderson, MD
Dean, Cumming School of Medicine
University of Calgary