Erika Petersen

Dr. Petersen directs the Section of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Medical Center. She is a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at UAMS and program director for the neurosurgery residency. Dr. Petersen is a board-certified neurosurgeon whose clinical practice focuses on neuromodulation, treating movement disorders, spasticity, and chronic pain through surgical procedures and stereotactic radiosurgery.

Dr. Petersen's research interests focus on developing new devices, indications, and methods for treating chronic pain using neuromodulation. Dr. Petersen has served on the Joint Section on Pain of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS)/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) and the CNS Scientific Programming Committee and sits on the Executive Board of the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience, where she is secretary. She serves as associate editor of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery for Operative Neurosurgery and Section Head Editor for the Journal of Pain Research.

She is on the editorial board of Neuromodulation and contributes as a reviewer for several other journals. Dr. Petersen completed her undergraduate education at Princeton University and received her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She trained in neurosurgery at the University of Texas Southwestern with a fellowship in deep brain stimulation at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.