UTMOVE Receives Distinguished Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders

UTHealth Houston Neurosciences’ Movement Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases Program (UTMOVE) has been chosen by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) as one of eight international academic centers to train a new movement disorders clinician-researcher – a neurologist with additional training and expertise in diagnosing and treating Parkinson’s and related diseases – as part of the Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders Class of 2025.

Launched in 2014, the Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders, a partnership between MJFF and the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, annually provides funding for esteemed academic centers around the world to train new movement disorders specialists through a two-year fellowship program. With generous additional support from the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, which has successfully helped build a global network of Parkinson’s specialists, the fellowship program has grown from awarding five to the current eight centers each year. Each fellow receives $90,000 per year.

“We are extremely honored and grateful to receive this award,” says Mya C. Schiess, MD, professor and the Adriana Blood Distinguished Chair in Neurology and division chief and founding director of the Movement Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases subspecialty clinic and fellowship program at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. “The new fellowship recognizes the quality of our training programs and the impact we have in our community.”

For more than 20 years, Schiess has led the UTMOVE fellowship program, which has successfully trained 31 fellows in a comprehensive, compassionate, and evidence-based approach to treating movement disorders. Sixty percent of program graduates have been led by their passion for teaching and research to pursue an academic career. The program is credentialed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the Texas Medical Board. First-year training in the fellowship program focuses on delivering excellence in diagnosing and managing movement disorders. The program’s hands-on training emphasizes procedural skills for botulinum toxin therapy, deep brain stimulation, and intrathecal baclofen pumps. Fellows also rotate through the Huntington’s Disease Society of America Center of Excellence at UTHealth Houston Neurosciences. In their second year, they conduct individual projects in basic science, translational, and/or clinical research with faculty in the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School and their collaborators.

The Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders is growing a global base of dedicated movement disorders specialists who can make significant contributions to high-quality patient care, advance science, and engage local and underrepresented communities. The fellowship now extends across 28 world-renowned academic institutions in eight countries and is on track to graduate 72 new specialists by the year 2028.

In addition to the UTMOVE fellowship program, Class of 2025 awardees are: Charité – Universitätsmedizin in Berlin, Germany; Northwestern University in Chicago; University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada; University of Rochester in Rochester, New York; University of Southern California, Los Angeles Keck School of Medicine; University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital in Sydney, Australia; and the University of Tübingen in Tübingen, Germany. An external review committee of movement disorders specialists, assembled by the MJFF, selected the eight centers from a highly competitive group of applicants.

Selection of awardees is based on several criteria, including previous history of training successful movement disorders clinician-researchers; breadth and depth of clinical care and research education and opportunities; departmental support for the fellow; and programs and opportunities for fellows to advance equitable access and diversity across clinical care, research, education, and community outreach.

UTHealth Houston Neuroscience’s UTMOVE fellowship program has recruited a Safra fellow for the Class of 2025 through the San Francisco Matching Program; Emily Tharp, MD, began two-year training in July 2023.