Southern Headache Society Past Presidents
Rebecca Erwin Wells, MD, MPH
Years President: 2022-2024
Dr. Rebecca Erwin Wells is a Professor with tenure in Neurology and Social Sciences Health Policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, NC. She has been…
Brian Plato, DO
Years President: 2020-2022
Dr. Brian Plato is the medical director of headache medicine with the Norton Neuroscience Institute in Louisville, KY. Dr. Plato received his medical degree from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed both his…
Brian Loftus, MD
Years President: 2016-2020
Dr. Brian Loftus’s journey to medicine was the road less travelled. His initial encounter with the medical field occurred during a summer between his freshman and sophomore years in college, when he worked with a…
Morris Maizels, MD
Years President: 2011-2016
Morris Maizels MD is a family physician and headache specialist, who has been involved in headache care and research since 1994. His study – Intranasal Lidocaine for Treatment of Migraine (JAMA 1996) – laid the…
Lifetime Achievement Award Winners
2025 Award Winner
Dr. Alan Finkel, MD
Dr. Alan Finkel, MD received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 SHS Scientific Meeting in recognition of his contributions to the field of Headache Medicine spanning over 40 years. Having originally established a headache clinic at UNC-Chapel Hill, he eventually (along with co-founders) brought the Carolina Headache Institute into the private realm. CHI became the de-facto regional referral center for headache patients who had failed conventional care. Headache Medicine reflected Dr. Finkel's moral and social convictions. From an interview: "Migraine should be an instrument for social change. ...I went into neurology looking for the same thing as I did in a psychiatry residency – looking for insight into human behavior. And my chief said to me, 'You’re in the wrong specialty.' But I am looking for the seat of the soul.... My advice – is to really look at every patient that you see as an N of 1 – and within that N of 1 there is some kind of kernel that brings us back to good care – and also good science. ...always try to find something new that interests you. It always goes back to the patient. The translational moment occurs at the point of contact with human beings, not at the bench."
In 2006, the recently established United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties (UCNS) recognized Headache Medicine as one of the first new neurologic subspecialties. Dr. Finkel was instrumental in this accomplishment and he was awarded the John R. Graham lecture award by the American Headache Society for his leadership in advancing recognition of headache medicine. Those not involved in the field at the time may be surprised to learn of the resistance to Board certification expressed by many established headache specialists. Dr. Finkel carried the torch, and thanks to his advocacy there are currently 859 UCNS accredited Headache Medicine specialists, and 50 UCNS accredited Headache Medicine fellowships.
Much of Dr. Finkel's work in the latter part of his career involved studying and treating veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) at the Defense and Veteran Brain Injury Center/Department of Defense at the Intrepid Spirit TBI Center at Fort Bragg. He has co-authored numerous papers on the subject.
Upon leaving UNC-CH, Dr. Finkel established a charitable organization, the Carolina Headache Foundation, which he has recently engaged to provide educational seminars to family medicine residencies throughout the state of North Carolina.
Aside from his work in Headache Medicine, Dr. Finkel is a skilled jazz piano player, and a poet.
2022 Award Winner
Anne Calhoun, MD
Anne Calhoun MD received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Headache Society at its annual meeting in 2022. Dr. Calhoun was Professor of Psychiatry and Anesthesiology at the Univeristy of N Carolina.She was a pioneer in the field of hormone therapy for women with migraine and other headache disorders, having authored more than 30 articles on the subject. Dr. Calhoun challenged entrenched medical beliefs about the risks of contraceptive therapy as well as estrogen-replacement therapy for women with migraine. In 2017, her article Hormonal Contraceptives and Migraine With Aura-Is There Still a Risk? challenged the guidelines of the day which considered aura a contra-indication to combined hormonal contraceptives. She summarized the evidence that the modern era of low-dose CHCs were safe in women with aura, allowing this important treatment modality to be offered to millions of women, changing their lives. Other areas of her research focused on the role of neck pain in delaying migraine treatment, the value of cognitive behavior therapy for sleep and migraine management, and presentations of vertigo in headache.