Our Team

Dr. Bronte-Stewart received a Master of Science in Bioengineering and her MD degree from University of Pennsylvania Schools of Engineering and Medicine respectively. Dr. Bronte-Stewart did her internship in medicine and a residency in neurology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She completed post-doctoral fellowships in movement disorders in single unit electrophysicology and motor control with Dr. Stephen Lisberger, at the University of California, San Francisco. Her expertise in single neuronal electrophysicology in primates has been transferred to the operating room where she performs the intra-operative microelectrode mapping of basal ganglia nuclei during deep brain stimulations (DBS) procedures for the treatment of patients with Movement Disorders. Dr. Bronte-Stewart's research focus is on elucidating the mechanisms of abnormal brain activity that contribute to abnormal movement and balance disorders in Parkinson's disease, tremor and dystonia. She has developed new technology to measure human motor control such as a MIDI keyboard, which has been developed by Intel's division of Healthcare Technology. In the Stanford Human Motor Control & Balance laboratory, Dr. Bronte-Stewart and her colleagues are investing the effects of interventions such as DBS and/or exercise on specific aspects of balance and upper extremity movement in Parkinson's disease. In the operating room, she and her colleagues record electrical signals directly from the human brain and have demonstrated that DBS suppresses an abnormal rhythm in the brain and may act like a brain pacemaker. Dr. Bronte-Stewart's passion for understanding how the brain controls movement comes from a background in classical and modern dance.

Jaimie M. Henderson, M.D., is director of the Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery program at Stanford. Dr. Henderson is an expert in the surgical treatment of movement disorders and chronic pain, and is active in research to improve stereotactic navigation and the efficacy of neuromodulatory therapies for movement disorders, pain, and other neurological diseases.

Dr. Henderson joined the Stanford Movement Disorders team in 2004, after spending three years developing innovative surgical techniques for deep brain stimulator placement at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to this, he started the movement disorders surgery program at St. Louis University in 1995, remaining on the faculty there for six years.

Dr. Henderson received his MD from Chicago's Rush Medical College in 1988, completed his residency in Neurosurgery at Saint Louis University in 1995 and completed fellowship training in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery before joining the faculty at St. Louis University. He is presently Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and, By Courtesy, of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Dr. Hong Yu received her bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from Harvard University and her medical degree from Vanderbilt University. She completed her residency in Neurosurgery and fellowship in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University before joining the faculty of Neurosurgery at Stanford.

She is interested in advancing the application of DBS for the treatment of neurologic and psychiatric diseases. Her research focuses on the development of a statistical, physiologic brain atlas and its application in DBS targeting and programming.

Dr. Kathleen Poston is Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurosciences and, by courtesy, Neurosurgery. Dr. Poston received her Bachelor’s of Science in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and her Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. She also obtained her medical degree from Vanderbilt University and then completed her Neurology residency training at UCSF, where she was Chief Resident.

She also completed a fellowship in clinical Movement Disorders under the mentorship of Dr. Stanley Fahn at Columbia University and post-doctoral training in Functional Neuroimaging with Dr. David Eidelberg at the Feinstein Institute.

Dr. Poston’s research focuses on the development of novel neuroimaging biomarkers to improve diagnostic accuracy and monitor the efficacy of investigational treatments for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. Her clinical interests include Parkinson’s disease, atypical Parkinsonian disorders, essential tremor, Huntington’s disease, and tics. She also has interest in the treatment of dystonia and blepharospasm with botulinum toxin.

As a movement disorders clinician, I manage conditions affecting motor control and gait, including Parkinson’s disease. I have also trained in the field of neuromuscular diseases and I am interested in treatments such as chemodenervation, and future clinical research that brings the two subspecialties together especially in disorders impairing tone and gait. Education of fellows, residents, and medical students is integral to my work and I am privileged to be part of their training at Stanford.

Bruce C. Hill, PhD performs calculations to assist the interoperative navigation during DBS surgery and oversees technical quality assurance for the program.

He insures that the various computer, electronic, and mechanical systems used in the clinic and operating room are operating correctly. He also collaborates with a number of the program's neurological and neurosurgical research efforts.

Dr. Hill received his BA in Physics (summa cum laude) from Rice University, his doctorate in Applied Physics from Stanford University and his residency training in Medical Physics from the University of California, San Francisco.

He also performed biomedical research and instrument development for fifteen years as a Principal Investigator on National Institutes of Health grants and was a Visiting Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University.

Simon Tan, PhD (staff neuropsychologist) received his bachelor's degree at Dartmouth College, doctorate in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University, and completed a pre-doctoral internship at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Tan also completed a post-doctoral fellowship specializing in clinical neuropsychology in both adult inpatient and outpatient settings at the Behavioral Neurology Unit, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Cambridge Hospital at Harvard.

Wendy Cole, RN, MN is a Clinical Nurse Coordinator in Movement Disorders. She graduated from Baylor University Nursing School and received her master's degree from UCLA in 1992.

She has worked extensively in different areas of neurology - starting with neurosurgery/trauma ICU for ten years, then as a nurse coordinator with epilepsy patients and then as a nursing instructor in an Associate Degree Program.

Wendy helps coordinate surgery referrals and the pre-surgical work-ups, provides patient education, assists movement disorder patients in the clinic and programs the deep brain stimulators on the post-operative patients. She has taken several advanced education courses on programming of deep brain stimulators.