Dr. Banwell serves as the Co-Principal Investigators for the PENN-CHOP NeuroNext grant, and specifically as the Principal Investigator of the CHOP site. Dr. Banwell is the Chief of the Division of Child Neurology and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. The Division of Child Neurology is home to 55 child neurology faculty, poised to contribute to the goals of NeuroNext. Dr. Banwell’s research interests relate to Multiple Sclerosis and related disorders in children. She has served for 17 years as lead-PI of the Canadian Pediatric Demyelinating Disease Program (CPDDP; 5 Principal Investigators, 47 collaborating researchers, 15 site investigators), which has now partnered with the CHOP Pediatric Demyelinating Disease Program. Dr. Banwell also serves as the Research Chair and as a Steering Committee member of the International Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Study Group (IPMSSG), as one of four international faculty on the Clinical Trials Advisory for the IPMSSG, and as a lead investigator in pediatric MS clinical trials. Dr. Banwell was selected as the pediatric neurologist on the 2010 and 2017 International MS Panel on MS Diagnosis (“McDonald criteria”), the International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials of New Drugs in Multiple Sclerosis, and served on the National Institute of Health Common Data Elements in MS committee. Dr. Banwell also cares for children with neuromuscular disorders, and previously Chaired the Medical Advisory Board of Muscular Dystrophy Canada.