Sloka Iyengar PhD, PMP, Director of Programming

Sloka Iyengar PhD, PMP is a neuroscientist, science educator and science advocate, passionate about using her science and dance training for the public good. As an educator, she has developed curricula and taught neuroscience and forensic science to middle-school and high-school students. Presently, she teaches neuroscience and evolution to educators at the American Museum of Natural History.

She developed the Basic Science section of www.epilepsy.com to communicate advances in basic epilepsy research to patients and caregivers globally. Her most recent projects focus on science and science communications. She is involved in neuroscience outreach and advocacy, having visited Capitol Hill several times to lobby for basic neuroscience funding to elected officials.

Sloka is also a professional dancer and performer of the 2000-year-old classical Indian dance form known as Bharatanatyam. Among other programming, she teaches dance and has started a program to bring dance to residents of New York City nursing homes. Passionate about combining the arts and sciences, Sloka has developed “Neuronatyam” – a production to explore dance through the lens of neuroscience. She worked at a shelter for stray animals, as well.

Her studies include at the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine, where her research focused on understanding how neuronal circuits generate and sustain epileptic seizures. After her postdoctoral study in an academic setting, Sloka transitioned to clinical research, where she worked closely with adults and children with refractory epilepsies. One of the trials led to the eventual approval of cannabidiol in subjects with specific epilepsy syndromes by the FDA.