Soriaya Lizette Motivala, MD, serves as a Director at Large on the Executive Board of the American Society of Pain & Neuroscience (ASPN). She is a board-certified neurosurgeon and Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, practicing at Staten Island University Hospital and Lenox Hill Hospital within the Northwell Health system, which she joined in 2017.
Dr. Motivala earned her medical degree at Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her neurosurgery residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she served as Chief Resident. She subsequently completed a pediatric neurosurgery externship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Ontario, Canada. She is certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery.
Her clinical practice focuses on neurosurgical spine surgery and interventional approaches to chronic spine and limb pain, including dorsal root ganglion stimulation and other neurostimulation techniques. She is a co-author of the 2025 Journal of Pain Research consensus publication “An Evidence-Based Consensus for the Use of Neurostimulation for the Treatment of Non-Surgical Low Back Pain: The NEURON Group,” produced under ASPN’s guidance, and has published on dorsal root ganglion stimulation lead placement technique, intrathecal drug delivery, spinal surgery wound care, and pituitary and other neurosurgical topics in journals including CNS Quarterly, The Spine Journal, and Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America.
In 2024, ASPN recognized Dr. Motivala with its Neurosurgeon of the Year award, honoring her contributions to the field. She is also an active participant in ASPN’s annual meetings as a panelist and moderator on neuromodulation and spine topics.