Erika Augustine

Dr. Erika Augustine, MD, MS serves as the Associate Chief Science Officer and Director of the Clinical Trials Unit at Kennedy Krieger Institute. She partners in developing the institute's clinical and translational research strategy while overseeing research operations, with primary responsibility for the development, growth, and financial management of clinical trials functions. Dr. Augustine maintains a strong liaison relationship with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) and collaborates closely with the Office of Human Research Administration on regulatory compliance for human subjects trials.

Dr. Augustine holds an A.B. in Biological Anthropology from Harvard College and earned her Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Rochester. She completed her training in Pediatric Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital, where she served as Chief Resident, followed by parallel fellowships in movement disorders and experimental therapeutics at the University of Rochester.

Her research program focuses on advancing therapeutic development for rare pediatric neurological disorders, with particular emphasis on comprehensive clinical phenotyping and trial design. Dr. Augustine's NIH-funded work examines trial readiness of clinical outcome measures in the neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs, Batten diseases), and she has published extensively on drug development in rare disease, natural history of NCLs, and clinical trials in Parkinson disease. Analysis of her publication record reveals a consistent focus on rare neurological disorders, with increasing emphasis on N-of-1 therapies, data sharing frameworks, and innovative trial designs in recent years.

• Sidney Carter Award in Neurology (2023)

Dr. Augustine demonstrates strong commitment to education and mentoring in clinical research, having launched the Minority Research Scholars Program in 2017, a collaborative initiative between the Child Neurologist Career Development Program and the Child Neurology Society aimed at fostering diversity among future clinician-scientists. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for Annals of Neurology, Neurology Director for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and member of the Board of Directors for the American Brain Coalition.