Erika F. Augustine is an Associate Chief Science Officer and Director of the Clinical Trials Unit at Kennedy Krieger Institute. She was previously an Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York. Augustine co-directed the University of Rochester Batten Center, and was the associate director of both the Center for Health and Technology and the Udall Center of Excellence in Parkinson's Disease Research. Augustine's clinical research and medical practice specialize in pediatric movement disorders. She leads clinical trials for Batten diseases, a group of rare pediatric neurodegenerative disorders, and she has developed a novel telemedicine model to increase the efficacy of remote care for patients with rare diseases.
Early life and education
Augustine pursued her undergraduate education at Harvard University. She majored in Biological Anthropology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1999. Following the completion of her undergraduate degree, she attended the University of Rochester for medical school. She obtained her MD in 2003, and then moved back to Boston to pursue her residency training at the Boston Children's Hospital. In 2008, she completed her residency training in Pediatrics and Child Neurology and then moved back to Rochester for her Fellowships. In 2009, she completed a fellowship in Experimental Therapeutics, and in 2010, she completed a fellowship in pediatric movement disorders. She then completed her Masters of Science in Translational Research at the University of Rochester in 2014.
Career and research
In 2012, Augustine was appointed to Assistant Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and the Center for Health and Technology at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). In 2013, she became the Assistant Program Director for the Experimental Therapeutics of Neurological Disorders Fellowship and in 2015 she became the associate director of the Center for Health and Technology at URMC. In 2017, she was promoted to Associate Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and the Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics. In 2018, URMC was selected by the National Institutes of Health to house the Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence in Parkinson's Disease Research and Augustine became a member of the executive committee, specifically the associate director of the center, where she serves as a principal investigator on FDA funded clinical trials.
Outside of URMC, Augustine is a member of the National Institutes of Health Taskforce on Childhood Motor Disorders. She also bridges translational research with the clinic by working as a consultant to the Food and Drug Administration Neurological Devices Panel to expedite the use of informative wearable technologies in gathering data in patients with neurological diseases to track disease and recovery. She is also the Diversity Officer for the new NIH based Child Neurologist Career Development Program K12 (CNCD-K12) where she reviews applications of clinician-scientists to receive funding. She also organizes and oversees the Minority Research Scholars Program through the CNCDP-K12 which provides travels awards to individuals to attend the Neurobiology of Disease in Children Symposium and the Child Neurology Society Annual Meeting. In addition, Augustine is the Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for planning the Child Neurology Symposium. Augustine is also a member of NeuroNEXT, a network distributed across institutions and funded by the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders to focus on expediting the development of therapies for neurological disorders. Augustine has been featured on several media platforms such as WXXINews to discuss her research on rare neurological diseases and she has also been a panelist on Second Opinion TV.