The Ottawa Headache Centre Team of Neurologists and Specialists

Dr. Suzanne Christie is the Director of the Ottawa Headache Centre.  She is Active Staff at the Ottawa Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at the University of Ottawa.  She is President of the Canadian Headache Society (CHS).  Along with the Advocacy Committee of the CHS, she has supported collaboration between the CHS and Migraine Canada to reach out to Ministers of Health or their delegates across Canada to improve access to newer therapies for our patients with migraine.

She has worked as Principal Investigator in multiple clinical trials and publishes in the area of headache. She is an author on all CHS Clinical Practice Guidelines including the Canadian Headache Society Guideline for Migraine Prophylaxis and the Canadian Headache Society: Acute Drug Therapy for Migraine Headache. She is also senior author on the Canadian Headache Society Systematic Review and Recommendations in the Treatment of Migraine Pain in Emergency Settings and the recent Updated Canadian Headache Society Migraine Prevention Guideline with Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, 2024.

Dr. Christie is the Director of the Headache Medicine Fellowship Program, University of Ottawa. She and her team at the Ottawa Headache Centre and Ottawa Hospital provide advanced training in Headache Medicine to multiple Canadian residents as well as residents from the Middle East certifying them as Headache Specialists.

She and her team are also actively involved in teaching neurology residents and pain medicine residents using a multifaceted one-month Headache Block which has been very successful. She has also been an invited speaker at many local and national conferences for neurologists and family physicians.

Affiliations

• University of Ottawa - Assistant Professor

• Canadian Headache Society - President

Dr. Ana Bradi is a neurologist with a headache-focused practice. She was one of the co-authors of the 2024 Updated Canadian Headache Society Migraine Prevention Guidelines, and is an active instructor of the Headache Fellowship at the University of Ottawa, as well as a Lecturer at the University of Ottawa. She also participates in teaching of neurology residents from the University of Ottawa. Outside of the headache clinic, she is also a consulting neurologist at the Queensway Carleton Hospital and is certified in EEG (electroencephalography) by the Canadian Society of Clinical Neurophysiologists. 

Dr. Bradi has special interests in education as well as in women's health. She is the leader of the Headache in Pregnancy and Peri-Partum Program at the Ottawa Headache Centre.

Affiliations

• University of Ottawa - Lecturer

• Queensway Carleton Hospital - Consulting Neurologist

Dr. Miguel Cortel-LeBlanc has a dual practice in Headache Medicine at the Ottawa Headache Centre and Emergency Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital. As an Emergency Medicine specialist he carved a clinical and academic focus on neurological emergencies and headache disorders. He has produced a number of headache-related publications including co-authoring the 2025 American Headache Society updated guidelines for parenteral treatment of migraine in the emergency department.

Beyond improving migraine care, his particular interests also lie in CSF-leaks and spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH), trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TACs), and secondary headache disorders. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa, and is completing a thesis-based Master of Headache Disorders at the University of Copenhagen and Danish Headache Center, and will be pursuing a Headache Fellowship at the Ottawa Headache Centre.

Affiliations

• University of Ottawa - Assistant Professor

• The Ottawa Hospital - Staff Physician

• Queensway Carleton Hospital - Staff Physician

• The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute - Clinician Investigator

• Institut du Savoir Montfort - Clinician Researcher

Dr. Achelle Cortel-LeBlanc is a bilingual (English/French) neurologist and UCNS-certified subspecialist in headache medicine. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa and serves as a Rotation Director in Undergraduate Medical Education.

She has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications in headache medicine and recently contributed to the 2025 American Headache Society guidelines on parenteral treatment of migraine in the emergency department. She is actively engaged in strengthening and expanding the research program at the Ottawa Headache Centre through collaborative, clinically relevant initiatives.

To further develop her expertise and incorporate international perspectives, Dr. A. Cortel-LeBlanc is currently completing the Master of Headache Disorders at the Danish Headache Center, University of Copenhagen—one of the world’s leading institutions in headache medicine. Her interests include sensory sensitivities such as photophobia, vascular considerations in headache disorders, and innovative, cross-disciplinary health system approaches to improving headache care.

Affiliations

• University of Ottawa - Assistant Professor

• Queensway Carleton Hospital - Consulting Neurologist

• Institut du Savoir Montfort - Clinician Researcher

Dr. Michael Kmeid is a bilingual (English/French) neurologist subspecializing in headache medicine. He is completing his Headache Fellowship at the University of Ottawa and Ottawa Headache Centre. As a board-certified neurologist, he is accepting referrals for general neurology as well.

Affiliations

• University of Ottawa - Fellow

Dr. Ilana Hanes is a board certified pediatric neurologist. She completed medical school at McMaster University in 2016 and continued her training in pediatric neurology at The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in 2021, followed by a fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).

Prior to her medical training, she obtained an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and a Masters degree in Neuroscience from the Montreal Neurological Institute. She is a Clinical Lecturer , Pediatrics (Neurology). She is excited to join the group at the Ottawa Headache Centre and further develop her expertise in pediatric headache.

Affiliations

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario - Pediatric Neurologist