Favilla Lab Members

Chris Favilla, MD

Dr. Favilla is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania where he also serves as the Director of the Non-invasive Cerebral Hemodynamic Evaluation (NICHE) Center. He completed undergraduate at Penn and medical school at the University of Florida. He completed neurology residency and stroke fellowship at Penn after which he joined the faculty. His clinical practice focuses on acute stroke management, while his research focuses on translation and adaptation of non-invasive imaging modalities to monitor cerebral hemodynamics.

Becca Gitlevich

Becca received a degree in Neuroscience from Temple and then joined the Favilla Lab as a clinical research coordinator. She has unique expertise in performing bedside hemodynamics monitoring and has developed a range of data processing pipelines. Becca is particularly passionate about intra-operative monitoring, and she plans to attend medical school in the coming years.
Pargol Balali, MD

Dr. Balali completed medical school at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and she received a Master’s in Neuroscience at McMaster University. After completing StrokeNET fellowship traning at Penn, she began her postdoctoral fellowship training in vascular neurology. She is interested in using advanced imaging techniques to better tailor stroke care, in large part through deciphering unique stroke mechanisms, such as carotid webs.
Bella Ganfield

Bella received a degree in Neuroscience from Franklin and Marshall, after which she joined the Favilla Lab as a clinical research coordinator. Bella supports a range of projects that include bedside optical imaging and stroke education.
Selma Nsioui
Joe Makeski, PhD

Dr. Majeski received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Rochester, and is currently completing his Postdoctural fellowship at Penn. He has expertise in developing instrumentation for noninvasive diffuse optical spectroscopy and tomography of hemodynamics. He is also interested translating his methods to clinical practice for the timely detection of cerebral hemodynamic impairment.
Braden Denny

Braden received a degree in Behavioral Sciences from the University of Florida, and he is currently a medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine. He has supported advanced neuroimaging analyses and bedside evaluations for a clinical trial. Braden plans to apply for residency in Neurology.