Leadership Team

Valeria Caso

WSA Leadership Group Member

Valeria Caso, is a stroke neurologist at the University of Perugia Stroke Unit, Italy and certified full professor in Neurology. She is former president of the European Stroke Organisation (ESO).
She has authored and co-authored more than 200 published papers and book-chapters. She has been involved in 20 multicentre trials serving in various positions including steering committees.
Valeria Caso is currently actively involved in international research projects on heart and brain, cervical artery dissections, intracerebral haemorrhage, and acute stroke treatment. She has made primary interest the treatment and prevention of stroke in women and working on stroke guidelines in women.

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Deidre De Silva

WSA Leadership Group Member

Deidre is a consultant stroke neurologist, head of neurology at the Singapore General Hospital of the National Neuroscience Institute, Associate Professor with Duke-NUS medical school, chair of the Stroke Services Improvement team with the Ministry of Health, World Stroke Organisation board member and committee member for the Singapore National Stroke Association. She is passionate about many aspects of stroke and has found the following projects particularly rewarding:
i) Improving stroke care on a systems level in Singapore through leading work with the Stroke Service Improvement team
ii)Understanding stroke patterns in Asian stroke patients better through clinical stroke research
iii)Encouraging learning about stroke through inter-professional education which often leads to improved inter-professional care coordination
iv) Innovating stroke care processes with novel digital solutions such as the Stroke Buddy Application, coordinated community care and partnerships
v) Supporting and advocating for the stroke community through work with the Singapore National Stroke Association, our local stroke support organization
vi) Working with regional and global colleagues on various projects through the World Stroke Organisation and other regional collaborations

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Andrew Demchuk

WSA Leadership Group Member

Dr. Demchuk is a Professor in the Departments of Clinical Neurosciences and Radiology at Univ of Calgary. He is also Director of the Calgary Stroke Program. His other major roles include Chair of Board of Directors, Canadian Stroke Consortium (Canada’s professional organization for stroke physicians); and Co-lead Leadership Council Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery.
His research focus is in clinical trials and stroke imaging. He was a PI for the ESCAPE trial and is a PI for the ENDOLOW trial. He has led core imaging laboratories for many stroke trials. His favorite pursuit is the training of stroke fellows. The Calgary Stroke Fellowship Program has trained over 90 fellows from 20+ countries including 35 now practicing across Canada.

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José G. Merino

WSA Leadership Group Member

José G. Merino, MD, MPhil, FAHA, FAAN, is editor-in-chief of Neurology® journals and a neurologist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, where he is also co-vice chair for education of the Department of Neurology. Merino studied medicine at the Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico City and obtained a Master of Philosophy degree on the history of medicine from the University of Cambridge in England. He trained in neurology and psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and in stroke at the University of Western Ontario. He has worked as faculty and clinical staff of the Section of Stroke Diagnosis and Therapeutics of NINDS, the University of Florida, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and the University of Maryland. His clinical and research interests focus on the management of patients with acute stroke. Merino has been engaged in editorial pursuits throughout his career. He has been a member of the editorial board of Stroke, the Revista Mexicana de Neurociencia, and science editor of AAN.com. Most recently, he was the US research editor of The BMJ from 2012 until 2019.

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Luciano Sposato

WSA Leadership Group Member

Dr. Luciano Sposato is a Professor of Neurology at the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), Western University, London, ON, Canada. He is a stroke neurologist and clinician-researcher, with cross appointments with the Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Anatomy and Cell Biology (Western University). Dr. Sposato is the Head of the Stroke Program, he holds the Barnett Chair in Stroke Research, and is the Director of the Heart & Brain Lab, at Western University. He is the Chair of the World Stroke Organisation Brain & Heart Task Force, and Associate Scientist at Robarts Research Institute. He is member of the Editorial Board and serves as Editor of the Neurocardiology Section of STROKE (American Heart Association) and is member of the Editorial Board of NEUROLOGY (American Academy of Neurology).
Dr. Sposato’s research focuses on the Brain & Heart connection and leads a multidisciplinary and translational research program involving epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies. Among his most impactful contributions, he described the clinical and pathophysiological concept of AFDAS (atrial fibrillation detected after stroke) and the pathophysiological process leading to cardiovascular complications in stroke patients, called SIHI (stroke-induced heart injury). He has published over 150 papers in the field.

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The Leadership Team contributes to the strategic direction of the WSA and plays a key role in monitoring the commissioning process, establishing priorities and implementing the WSO vision to reduce the global burden of stroke.

Valeria Caso

Deidre De Silva

Andrew Demchuk

José G. Merino

Luciano Sposato