Erika A. Petersen, MD, FAANS, FACS, is Immediate Past President of the American Society of Pain & Neuroscience (ASPN), having served as ASPN President during the 2024 term. She is Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), where she directs the Section of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery and serves as Program Director for the Neurosurgery Residency. A board-certified neurosurgeon, she is a Fellow of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (FAANS) and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS).
Dr. Petersen earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her neurosurgery residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, followed by a research and clinical fellowship in functional neurosurgery at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.
Her clinical practice centers on neuromodulation for chronic pain and movement disorders, including spinal cord stimulation, occipital nerve stimulation, deep brain stimulation, and treatment of spasticity, with additional use of stereotactic radiosurgery. She has served as lead investigator on national studies of diabetic foot pain and has contributed to research on amputation pain, chronic back pain, and leg pain, as well as to the development of clinical guidelines for chronic pain conditions. Her recent peer-reviewed work includes multi-center studies on high-frequency spinal cord stimulation for refractory back pain and consensus guidance on neurostimulation for non-surgical low back pain.
In 2019, Dr. Petersen received ASPN’s inaugural Clinical Excellence Award, recognizing her achievements in clinical practice, research, and advocacy in pain treatment. She has also held editorial roles including Associate Editor for Operative Neurosurgery and Section Head Editor for the Journal of Pain Research.
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