Associate Editor / Community Manager
Patricia Osborne Shafer, RN, MN, is an epilepsy clinical nurse specialist at the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and the associate editor and community manager of epilepsy.com for the Epilepsy Foundation. She has been involved with epilepsy.com and the Epilepsy Therapy Project for many years.
Patty received her undergraduate education at the University of Vermont and a graduate degree in neuroscience nursing from the University of Washington in Seattle. She currently coordinates the ambulatory nursing program in epilepsy and provides ongoing care and education to people with epilepsy and families. Her clinical and research interests include self-management and health education in epilepsy, women’s issues, patient safety, and treatment and consequences of refractory epilepsy.
She is a past member and past chair of the Epilepsy Foundation’s Professional Advisory Board, a past member of the Board of Directors of the Epilepsy Foundation, and a long-term member of the Professional Advisory Board of New England. She has served on the American Epilepsy Society Board of Directors and numerous committees and workgroups. She has also participated in the creation of the North American Declaration on Epilepsy, a public health agenda for epilepsy, and guidelines for first seizures and women with epilepsy. She is an affiliate member of the CDC-funded Managing Epilepsy Well Network and she has served on numerous research review panels and advisory committees for regulatory reform, disability concerns, and public health concerns in epilepsy. Patty was a member for the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Public Health Dimensions of the Epilepsies. She brings a personal perspective, having lived with epilepsy for many years.
