7 Women Migraine Innovators You Should Know

If you live with migraine, it can be hard to stay optimistic. You get tired of the cycle of painful attacks and recovery. You wonder: Will there ever be a cure for migraine? Will people ever understand the true toll of this disease?

Just remember: You are not alone! Thousands of researchers, doctors, entrepreneurs, inventors and advocates are out there fighting the good fight. And because migraine predominantly affects women, we want to recognize a few of the women who inspire us with their work to better understand, support and treat people with migraine.

Dawn C. Buse, Ph.D.

Migraine “is just objectively hard,” Dr. Buse said at the “Living Well with Migraine: Embracing Wellness in the Face of Chronic Disease” webinar. "It is a painful, unpredictable, debilitating disease. … It's not an easy way to live your life, not knowing when an attack might happen." Dr. Buse's work focuses on helping people not just survive, but live well with chronic pain and headache. She frequently speaks about anxiety, depression, and resilience in people with migraine.

Dr. Buse is a Clinical Professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Health Psychology Doctoral Program of Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology.

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Jen Trainor-McDermott

As CEO of CEFALY Technology - and the only woman CEO of a migraine medical device company - Trainor-McDermott maintains an unwavering focus on helping customers improve their quality of life. She finds it deeply meaningful to talk to CEFALY customers about the pain they experience and hearing how much CEFALY helps them get back to life. "Ultimately, that's what I love to do," she says. "I just love to help our customers feel better about themselves."

Trainor-McDermott is a forward-looking leader who has overseen some of the biggest advances in eTNS migraine treatment technology in her tenure at CEFALY. These include the redesigned CEFALY Enhanced, the Bluetooth-enabled CEFALY Connected, and the CeCe Migraine Management app, which helps users gain new insights into their journey toward migraine relief. Learn more about CEFALY.

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Deena Kuruvilla, MD

Dr. Kuruvilla is one of the researchers in the forefront of studying the effectiveness of eTNS (external trigeminal nerve stimulation) for migraine. She was the principal investigator for the TEAM (Trial of e-TNS for the Acute treatment of Migraine) study, the largest sham-controlled clinical trial examining the use of any eTNS therapy for the treatment of migraine headache.

This study showed two hours of ACUTE treatment relieved pain for 7 out of 10 CEFALY users and also treated other migraine symptoms. More than half of CEFALY users said their most problematic migraine symptom — such as nausea or light sensitivity — was resolved after 2 hours of ACUTE treatment.

Dr. Kuruvilla is a board certified neurologist and Director of the Westport Headache Institute, where she takes a holistic, biopsychosocial approach to diagnosis and treatment.

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Lauren R. Natbony, MD, FAHS

Dr. Natbony realized that the conventional, medication-focused approach to migraine treatment was failing to address the complexities of patients' real lives. That's why she founded Integrative Headache Medicine of New York: to treat migraine and headache from a whole-person perspective.

An integrative approach to migraine treatment includes traditional medical therapies as well as evidence-based complementary therapies, such as acupuncture, and lifestyle changes. A multimodal approach to migraine is key, Dr. Natbony said at the 2023 Migraine World Summit: "Maybe it wasn't the medication and then sleeping well that worked, but then you added on a neuromodulation device, and then you added on some biofeedback, and then you added on exercise. Whatever it is, it's the combination of things that work together, not necessarily each thing individually."

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Julienne Verdi, JD

Julienne Verdi is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy (AHDA), an umbrella organization uniting headache advocates that aims to make life better for the millions of Americans living with headache disorders in the United States.

The AHDA organizes the annual Headache on the Hill, the only federal advocacy day dedicated exclusively to advocating for equitable policies for the 40+ million Americans living with headache disorders. Verdi, who lives with migraine herself, is a mother of four and the owner and principal attorney at J. Verdi Law, LLC and JV Consulting Group LLC.

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Carlene D. Moore, Ph.D.

Dr. Moore grew up as one of five sisters on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. Four of the five siblings - including Dr. Moore - have migraine, which fostered her interest in studying headache and chronic pain. As an assistant professor in Neurology at Duke University and a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Dr. Moore has spent the past 15 years researching migraine pain pathways.

She's particularly interested in studying the transient receptor potential (TRP) channels on the trigeminal nerve, which play an important role in communicating migraine pain. Current research is examining how sex hormones like progesterone, estrogen, and even testosterone affect TRP channel regulation and menstrual cycle-linked migraines. 

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Shirley Kessel

Migraine has had a profound effect on Kessel for her entire life. Her mother was debilitated by the disorder, leaving Kessel to care for her younger siblings and her father. Kessel lives with migraine, as do two of her three daughters. One had to drop out of school in 11^th grade and put her life on pause, living in a dark bedroom for a year.

Kessel became an outspoken migraine advocate. As executive director of Miles for Migraine, she has grown the organization from a small nonprofit to the largest live, patient-participatory event host organization in the country. Miles for Migraine is dedicated to improving the lives of individuals with migraine and headache disease by funding fellowship programs to alleviate the doctor shortage, while creating a supportive community for patients and their families through programs and events nationwide.

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