Aleksandra Pikula

Dr. Pikula is an Professor of Medicine (Neurology/Vascular Neurology) at the University of Toronto, a Clinician-Investigator at Krembil Brain Institute, Director of Stroke Neurology Research at University Health Network, Co-Director of Women's Neurology Fellowship at U of T and Founder of the EMBRACE Lifestyle Program for Optimal Brain Care & Stroke Prevention. She is holder of the Jay and Sari Sonshine Chair in Stroke Prevention and Cerebrovascular Brain Health, 2023. She is quadruple board-certified in Internal Medicine (NYU), Neurology (Boston University), Vascular Neurology (BU/Harvard/Framingham Study) & Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), and she is certificated in Clinical Nutrition Science (Stanford University), Plant-Based Nutrition (Cornell University), Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice (Institute for Functional Medicine) & Precision Nutrition Coaching (Canada).

She is a founder and director of the largest multidisciplinary Stroke in Young Adults (SiYA) Program in Canada; program that thus far successfully trained over 30 neurology residents and stroke, women’s neurology, and rheumatology fellows from around the world. Her clinical and research interests are focused on sex-disparities in stroke prevention and outcomes, studying the effect of various factors (psychological, social, lifestyle) on HRQOL and brain care/health in young adults (specifically women).

This led to an emerging interest in developing innovative clinical strategies for brain care/stroke prevention - the EMBRACE Lifestyle Program and more recently, the KNOW BRAIN Study focusing on patients’ knowledge & awareness about impact of lifestyle strategies on brain health. Dr. Pikula’ s work had been published in high impact journals (Nature, Stroke, Circulation, JAMA, Neurology, and others ) and recognized by, amongst others, the NIH/NINDS & ANA, the AHA/ASA, the CIHR through continuous research support.