Patti Vining MD

Dr. Patti Vining is Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  She recently retired as Division Chief of Child Neurology, Director of the John M. Freeman Pediatric Epilepsy Center at Johns Hopkins and Director of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. 

Dr. Vining graduated from Vassar College,  received her M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and trained in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh,  followed by a fellowship in Developmental Pediatrics at the Kennedy Institute/Johns Hopkins.  She trained in EEG under Dr. Niedermeyer at Johns Hopkins.  She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Vining has had a long commitment to the assessment and care of the “whole child”, recognizing that epilepsy occurs in the setting of all the individual elements that need to be optimized for the child and family to do well.  This is at the foundation of the book that she co-authored with John Freeman and Diana Pillas, Seizures and Epilepsy in Childhood: A Guide.  Early in her professional life, she had the remarkable opportunity of working with Dr. Kiffin Penry, Dr. Fritz  Dreifuss and Ms.  Pat Gibson to develop and implement a program to understand issues about Quality of Life for people with epilepsy.  In her career at Hopkins she helped develop a program focused on the comprehensive care of children with epilepsy, and has championed the thoughtful use of surgery and the ketogenic diet for children with intractable epilepsy.  She has focused her research efforts in three areas: surgery for epilepsy in children (especially hemispherectomy), the ketogenic diet, and the impact of epilepsy and its treatment on the child.

She has been active in the American Academy of Pediatrics, serving on their National Meeting and Scientific Exhibition Planning Group and the Executive Committee for Child Neurology.  She has served on numerous AES committees including: the Scientific Program Committee, Continuing Medical Education Committee, and the Year Round Education Committee (Pediatrics).  She has also served the Epilepsy Foundation, locally and nationally, in a variety of capacities.