Carolina Headache Foundation Leadership Team

Board Members

Justin De La Guerra, MD is a Family Medicine physician and faculty member at the Duke/Southern Regional AHEC Family Medicine Residency Program, where he also completed a Faculty Development Fellowship. He serves as Medical Director and Team Physician at Methodist University and cares for student athletes at Fayetteville State University—where concussions, migraines, and the occasional mystery headache are as common as sprained ankles in preseason. His prior experience supporting law enforcement and SWAT teams adds to his passion for headache and concussion care—because whether it’s a tactical breacher or a linebacker, he’s seen just about every way a head can hurt.

Delora Elizabeth Denney is a current neurology resident at the University of Colorado. She has published literature on migraine, specifically focusing on hormones, weather, and aura. She is the former Executive Director of the Carolina Headache Foundation and helped design and teach a headache education curriculum for family medicine residents, focusing on diagnosis and treatment of menstrual migraine. She also worked to redesign the headache education curriculum at her own medical school and is now part of the American Headache Society’s Medical School Education Task Force.

Leeann Garms has over a decade of executive leadership in healthcare, most recently as the CEO of one of the largest private practice neurology groups in the country, helping organizations grow sustainably while serving patients and the broader care community. She is passionate about connecting people, ensuring business success remains aligned with the company's mission, and designing cultures that inspire collaboration. At her core, she believes relationships drive meaningful change and lasting impact.

Kris Herfkens is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist in private practice in Durham, North Carolina. Her practice is focused on diagnosis and treatment of adult neurocognitive disorders with a subspecialty focus on geriatrics and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In addition, she has over twenty years of experience in forensic neuropsychology in both civil and criminal litigation.

Elisabeth Johnson, PhD, FNP-BC, CARN-AP, LCAS, is a Family Nurse Practitioner and Associate Professor who has been a faculty member in the UNC Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology since 2008. She currently serves as Division Director of UNC Horizons, a comprehensive treatment program for pregnant and parenting individuals with substance use disorders. With over two decades of experience in women's health, integrated primary care, and behavioral health, Dr. Johnson brings a unique clinical and leadership perspective to interdisciplinary care. Her expertise in complex care coordination, health systems innovation, and patient-centered program development informs her contributions to the Carolina Headache Foundation board.

Kevin Kahn, M.D. is the Director of the Carolina Headache Institute and Associate Professor, Psychiatry, Anesthesia and Dentistry at UNC Chapel Hill.

Karen Mishra, Ph.D. is the department chair of Business Administration at Campbell University’s Lundy-Fetterman School of Business. She brings corporate experience in HR, sales, and marketing, and has helped launch three North Carolina health tech startups. Over the past 30+ years, she has served on nonprofit boards including the ARC of Winston-Salem, Samaritan Ministries, Preston’s League, Cancer Services, and Leadership Winston-Salem, as well as advisory boards for LEAD: Let’s Empower, Advocate, and Do, and the Forsyth Early Childhood Partnership.

Linda Gray, M.D. Associate Professor of Radiology Associate Professor in Neurosurgery Duke Neuroradiology

Nita Farahany Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor of Law. Professor of Philosophy

Advisors

Maggie Mishra is an LCSW and has spent over 7 years providing mental health therapy and case management in a variety of settings. As an undergraduate student, she interned with Dr. Finkel helping him conduct research related to migraine treatment. She has also been a patient of Dr. Finkel’s for many years and is very passionate about excellent migraine diagnosis and treatment.