2022 BEBRF Phoenix Symposium Speaker Bios

Padma Mahant, MD, Program Director, is a Movement Disorders Neurologist with the Barrow Neurological Institute Movement Disorders Program, Department of Neurology, as well as Foothills Neurology, a private practice in Phoenix. She also serves as Clinical Assistant Professor in Neurology at the University Of Arizona College Of Medicine. Dr Mahant graduated with honors from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and completed her residency in Neurology at the University of Rochester. She then completed a fellowship in Movement Disorders at Barrow Neurological Institute. She has contributed to clinical research in Parkinson’s disease, blepharospasm, and motor control research. She is a member of the Movement Disorder Society, the American Academy of Neurology, and the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. Dr Mahant has also served as an investigator for the Parkinson Study Group and as clinical faculty for ASU’s Center for Adaptive Neural Systems. She regularly speaks for patient and physician groups on topics related to movement disorders, including two prior BEBRF Symposiums, and her clinical practice is grounded in a comprehensive and compassionate approach to patient care. Dr. Mahant is honored to be a part of the BEBRF community and to serve as Program Director for the 2022 BEBRF Symposium.

Johan E . S . Samanta, M .D ., is a Movement Disorders Neurologist in private practice in Phoenix, AZ. In addition to his busy clinical practice, he remains actively involved in academic medicine as Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in both the Tucson and Phoenix campuses. He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia before completing an internship in Internal Medicine at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center and a residency in Neurology at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. He completed his postgraduate training as the Evelyn Kossak Movement Disorders Fellow at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Research Center at Barrow Neurological Institute in 2000 before joining the Barrow faculty and serving as the associate program director for the neurology residency. Since moving to private practice in 2003, he has maintained his focus on movement disorders with an emphasis on the diagnosis and management of Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, and tremor. He has over 25 years of experience in the therapeutic use of botulinum toxins for movement disorders and has performed over 22,000 injection treatments over that time.

Obada Subei, MD, obtained his doctorate in medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He pursued his interest in Neurology at the University of Arizona at Phoenix and completed a fellowship in the field of Neuro-Ophthalmology at Michigan State University. Dr. Subei is well known for his compassion for his patients. He has dedicated his career to helping people maintain their vision and treat those with rare and unique disease entities. He is always advocating for his patients’ well-being.

Virgilio Gerald H . Evidente, MD, is a movement disorders neurologist, and is the founder and current director of the Movement Disorders Center of Arizona. Dr. Evidente received his fellowship training on Movement Disorders at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, and founded and headed the Deep Brain Stimulation program at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona from 2001 to 2012. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, and a member of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. He has also served as a Principal Investigator, and Co-Investigator for numerous clinical trials, regarding treatments for Parkinson’s disease, Atypical Parkinsonism, blepharospasm, cervical dystonia, genetic dystonia, tremors, spasticity, cognitive impairment, psychosis related to Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease and ataxia. His main interests are deep brain stimulation for movement disorders, botulinum toxin therapy, and movement neurophysiology. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the various aspects of movement disorders.