Dr. Roger W Kula MD, FAAN

Roger W. Kula was born in Chicago, IL in 1945. He received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University with a major in Chemistry. After completing medical school in 1970 at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, he came to New York to begin his internal medicine training at The New York Hospital – Cornell University. His neurology training began at the H.C. Moffitt Hospital, University of California San Francisco, where his exposure to the influence of then Chairman Robert A. Fishman, M.D. first stimulated his interest in spinal fluid physiology. He completed his formal residency training at the Medical Neurology Branch of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, Bethesda, MD in 1975, where he continued training in neuromuscular diseases under the mentorship of W. King Engel, M.D. In 1977, he returned to New York to establish a neuromuscular disease program at the State University of New York (SUNY-Downstate) as Assistant Professor of Neurology. American Board Certification in Internal Medicine was received in 1975 and followed by Certification in Psychiatry and Neurology (Neurology) in 1977. He went on to establish one of the most clinically active Muscular Dystrophy Association, Inc. clinics in the tri-state area. In 1991, he was appointed Chairman of Neurology at The Long Island College Hospital while continuing to serve as Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology and Vice-Chairman of the academic department at the SUNY-Downstate School of Medicine. His interest in neuromuscular diseases expanded to include disorders of the spinal cord and peripheral nerves. Sharing a common interest in syringomyelia and the diverse and subtle neurological symptoms plaguing Chiari patients, he began an increasingly close collaboration with Dr. Thomas Milhorat though the 1990’s, and in 2003 joined The Chiari Institute as its Medical Director. In 2008, he was one of the first 100 neurologists the achieve Board Certification in the subspecialty area of Neuromuscular Medicine. In December 2016 he left Northwell Health and joined with a longstanding neurosurgical colleague, Dr. Paolo Bolognese, to establish the Chiari Neurosurgical Center at NSPC. He enjoys a continuing appointment as Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Hofsta Northwell School of Medicine. Dr. Kula is recognized as a Fellow in the American Academy of Neurology, and has served on the physician panels of The American Syringomyelia Alliance Project, Chiari and Syringomyelia Foundation, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Neuropathy Association, the National Fibromyalgia Association and the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome Associations. He has been a funded investigator with grants supported by the American Syringomyelia Alliance Project, The Muscular Dystrophy Association and numerous pharmaceutical groups such as Amgen, Regeneron, Abbott Labs, and Burroughs-Wellcome. He has been distinguished among his peers by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. for more fifteen years as one of America’s Top Doctors.