The NREF A. Leland Albright Fund Honors a Great Mentor
By Catherine A. Mazzola, MD, FAANS
The Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation (NREF) has committed over 30 million dollars towards the support of 257 Young Clinician and Investigator Awards, 256 Medical student fellowships, 129 grants, and 88 resident and fellow educational courses. While the NREF has many ways to donate, one of the most meaningful ways to donate is through the Honor Your Mentor Funds.
Honor Your Mentor Funds recognize the incredible people who have advanced neurosurgery. Each mentor fund has a specific purpose. Your gift will fund a chosen research or educational endeavor in their name. Several of the Members of the AANS/ CNS Joint Section in Pediatric Neurological Surgery started the A. Leland Albright Fund, a few years ago, in honor of Leland and his work in Kenya.
A.Leland Albright, MD, FAANS, graduated from Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1965 and the LSU School of Medicine in 1969. He pursued an internship in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University Hospital and a year of general surgery residency at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Albright then served for three years in the U.S. Public Health Service as a clinical associate in neurosurgery at the National Institutes of Health. In 1978, he completed his neurosurgical residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) under the chairmanship of Peter Jannetta, MD, DSc, FAANS(L). After serving on the faculty of the University of Louisville for two years, Dr. Albright returned to UPMC and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP) in 1981.
He became chief of pediatric neurosurgery in 1992 and professor of neurosurgery in 1993. His clinical research interests in the initial years at CHP involved clinical trials for pediatric brain tumors through the Children’s Cancer Group. Dr. Albright then developed the use of intrathecal baclofen to treat children with spasticity and secondary dystonia and established a multi-disciplinary spasticity and movement disorders center that drew referrals of children from throughout the United States. An endowed chair in pediatric neurosurgery was established in his honor in 2002.
He moved to the University of Wisconsin Health Center in 2006 where he developed a spasticity and movement disorders clinic. Leaving U.S. academic practice in 2010, he moved to Kijabe, Kenya, as a medical missionary to do and to teach pediatric neurosurgery. In Kenya, he taught two pediatric neurosurgery fellows and 15 neurosurgery residents from the University of Nairobi. Dr. Albright and his colleagues performed more than 5,000 operations before he returned to the United States in 2015.
Dr. Albright was the senior editor of the first and subsequent editions of the textbook Principles and Practice of Pediatric Neurosurgery, which has become the standard resource for the subspecialty worldwide. He has been a visiting professor at 30 academic centers in the United States and abroad. He was active in the AANS/CNS Section on Pediatric Neurological Surgery and the American Board of Pediatric Neurosurgery. In 2012, he received the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Humanitarian Award.
In February 2021, the NREF announced that at the direction of Dr. Albright, the Honor Your Mentor Fund has distributed to:
- Dr. Martin Muthinja Kariinya $3600 from the Honor your Mentor fund in 2021 and in each of the three remaining years of his residency thereafter, a total of $14,400 for 2021-2024 at Kijabe Hospital designated to “Martin Education Fund”.
- Dr. Emmanuel Wafula who will begin his neurosurgical training with Dr. Will Copeland at Tenwek Hospital in Bomet Kenya in a new neurosurgical residency program under the auspices of the College of Surgeons of East and Centra Africa (COSECSA, the regional surgical credentialing body) and the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS). The first year of his residency has been provided by donors, including Dr. Albright. $25,000 is being used to pay for the second year of his residency.
The Pediatric Neurosurgery Section congratulates Dr. A Leland Albright and the donors to his fund for their commitment to the education and training of Kenyan Neurosurgical Residents.
