National Medical Advisor

Michael S. Okun, MD, (@MichaelOkun) has served as National Medical Director and Advisor to the Parkinson’s Foundation since 2006, and in 2025 was named Chair of the Clinical Advisory Council. He is dedicated to the concept of interdisciplinary care, and he has worked with the Parkinson’s Foundation Centers of Excellence to help foster the best possible environments for care, research and outreach in Parkinson's disease (PD). He coined the term the Parkinson’s pandemic to bring awareness to the explosive growth of this disease. His efforts have been central in reducing hospitalizations and saving lives.  He is a leading national spokesperson for Parkinson's disease, and has been extensively quoted in The New York Times, Wall St. Journal, USA Today, CNN and other media.

Dr. Okun has dedicated much of his career to developing care and research centers for people living with PD and movement disorders, but he has also had a prolific research career uncovering the physiology underpinning many neurological diseases, developing smart technologies and exploring non-motor basal ganglia brain features. He has participated in some of the pioneering studies exploring the cognitive, behavioral and mood effects of brain stimulation and much of his work has been part of FDA approvals for new drug and device-based treatments.

He is the former Chair of Neurology at the University of Florida. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at the University of Florida Health. The Institute is unique in that it is comprised of more than 150 interdisciplinary faculty members from diverse areas of campus, all of whom are dedicated to care, outreach, education and research. The Institute is well known for its science and service hub model of care and research as well as for its international think tanks.

Dr. Okun received his BA in History from Florida State University and his MD from the University of Florida where he graduated with Honors. Dr. Okun completed an internship and Neurology residency at the University of Florida. Following residency, he was trained at Emory University, one of the world's leading centers for movement disorders research, in both general movement disorders and in surgical treatments for Parkinson's and other neuropsychiatric diseases.

Dr. Okun holds the Adelaide Lackner Professorship in Neurology and has published more than 600 peer-reviewed articles and trained over 80 MD fellows in Parkinson’s disease. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, he is a published poet (Lessons From the Bedside, 1995) and author of 15 books including most recently The Parkinson’s Plan (2025).  His research is highly cited and has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Lancet and many other peer-reviewed venues. He has been invited to speak about Parkinson's disease and movement disorders all over the world and was honored at the White House in 2015 as a champion for change in Parkinson’s disease. His book Parkinson’s Treatment: 10 Secrets to a Happier Life has been translated into more than 20 languages.