Our Team | Department of Neurology

Meet our team:

Neurology

Hokuto Morita, MD, MA

Assistant Professor of Neurology, Movement Disorders

Steven P. Trau, MD

Director, UNC Clinic for Tourette Syndrome and Tic Disorders
Medical Director, UNC Child Neurology Clinic
Assistant Professor - Child Neurology

Christine Gabriella (Gabby) Colaianni, CPNP

Gabby Colaianni is a pediatric nurse practitioner in the Division of Child Neurology. While she sees patients with a whole spectrum of neurological disorders, she has a specific interest in patients with Tourette syndrome and tic disorders. In the Clinic, she specializes in seeing children in follow-up care for both medical management and tracking their progress for various co-occurring conditions.

Beth Vazquez, LCSW

Beth Vazquez is a licensed clinical social worker with over fifteen years of experience in child and family well-being, community mental health, and health care. As the outpatient social worker for Children’s Neurology, she works with families to reduce barriers to care and address psychosocial needs. She is interested in interdisciplinary collaboration to reduce health disparities and build resilience in individuals, families, and communities.

Psychology and Psychiatry

James Bedford, MD

James E. Bedford, MD is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist who after training at the University of North Carolina and the University of California–Davis MIND Institute returned to Chapel Hill to join the faculty of UNC Department of Psychiatry. As Co-Director of the Program on Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry, he specializes in high-quality psychiatric assessment and treatment of people with developmental disabilities and other neuropsychiatric concerns. Dr. Bedford is very actively involved in psychiatry resident education, directing a number of didactic courses and supervising and mentoring trainees at a variety of levels.

Jen Kogos Youngstrom, PhD

Dr. Youngstrom is a clinical professor, director of clinic services, and director of assessment at the UNC Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. Serving as a research associate professor in psychiatry at UNC-Chapel Hill, she is also a licensed psychologist in North Carolina. She conducts and supervises evidence-based assessment practices as well as cognitive behavioral therapy and family systems work, and she is an investigator on assessment and therapy effectiveness grants. In addition to supervising graduate students in the UNC Child and Family Clinic for assessment and therapy, she teaches and conducts research on transporting treatments into the community.

Occupational Therapy

Erin Afshar, OTR/L

Erin Afshar is a pediatric occupational therapist trained in Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT). While she sees pediatric patients with a variety of conditions and diagnoses, she has a specific interest in working with children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome/tic disorders, and the comorbid conditions of ADHD, OCD, Sensory Processing Disorder and anxiety. Erin uses her unique OT perspective that considers the challenges of participation in daily activities that may be caused by their tics. Erin provides a family and function-based approach that promotes each of her patients to integrate effective strategies to manage their tics so that they do not interfere with daily living routines.

Sara Dydyn, OTR/L

“I have always known that I have wanted to help people. Occupational therapy is such a unique and diverse profession that allows me to work with and help people across the lifespan and across multiple diagnoses. My approach to patient care is to meet everyone where they are with an abundance of care and understanding. Everyone we meet is facing challenges, those that brought them to my treatment table amongst others, and it’s important to understand we are all doing the very best that we can. My areas of interest are in adaptive equipment and technologies – specifically custom wheelchair fittings, comprehensive behavioral intervention for tics (CBIT), as well as adult neurological and orthopedic conditions. Outside of work I enjoy creating things in the pottery studio, running up the scoreboard in flag football, stretching out in yoga, and spending time with my partner and pup.”

Appointments and Clinic Location

To make an appointment, please have your primary care provider send us a referral through UNC Carelink.

Our clinics are located at:

UNC Hospitals Children’s Specialty Services at Raleigh
2801 Blue Ridge Road
Raleigh, NC 27607
Phone: (984) 974-0500
Fax: (984) 974-0506
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UNC Hospitals Child Neurology Clinic at Carolina Pointe II, Chapel Hill
6011 Farrington Road, Suite 101
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
Phone: (984) 974-7337
Fax: (984) 974-5437
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