Alison Joanne Athey, PhD

Neda Gould is a clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She also serves as director of the Mindfulness Program at Johns Hopkins and associate director of the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Anxiety Disorders Clinic.In addition to treating patients with anxiety and depression, one of her primary areas of interest is teaching mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and other mindfulness programs to patients, faculty and staff. She has led numerous clinical and professional MBSR groups and was the MBSR interventionist for a recent randomized control trial for patients with migraines. Dr. Gould was involved in a systematic review and meta-analysis entitled Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Wellbeing published in JAMA Internal Medicine.In 2015, Dr. Gould completed an eight-month meditation program through the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. She has practiced mindfulness meditation since 2008; attended numerous mindfulness workshops and silent retreats; and given many lectures on mindfulness meditation to various research and clinical groups.Dr. Gould received her doctorate in clinical psychology from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., while completing research at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She subsequently completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in psychology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before joining the faculty.

Kathleen Bechtold, Ph.D., ABPP, (formerly Kortte) is an Associate Professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She specializes in the rehabilitation needs of patients post brain injury or brain illness.Dr. Bechtold earned her Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in neuropsychology and rehabilitation psychology at Johns Hopkins. Patients can be referred to Dr. Bechtold for cognitive dysfunction, impairment or decline; emotional management and adjustment to medical issues related to the brain; fatigue management from brain injury or illness; cognitive rehabilitation; neuropsychological evaluation and diagnosis related to brain injury or illness.Dr. Bechtold is an active researcher focused on understanding the effects of traumatic and non-traumatic brain injury on behavior and the recovery process (both facilitators and barriers to that process) from such injuries. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the International Neuropsychological Society, and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, and the International Brain Injury Association.

Elias Sotirchos, M.D., specializes in the diagnosis, management and treatment of neuroimmunological disorders that involve the central nervous system, including multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD). His research focuses on developing and validating novel imaging and blood-based biomarkers of these conditions, and clinical trials of experimental therapeutic agents. Dr. Sotirchos earned his medical degree from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and subsequently completed his internship and neurology residency training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He then pursued advanced clinical and research training in neuroimmunology at Johns Hopkins as a National MS Society Sylvia Lawry Fellow.