Alexis L. Franks, MD, FAAP

Alexis L Franks, MD, FAAP is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Divisions of Child Neurology and Child Development. She is the director of education for the Child Development Unit and is responsible for supervising, organizing, and coordinating medical education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics for Child Neurology residents, Pediatrics residents, University of Pittsburgh Medical Students, amongst many other learners and medical trainees from multidisciplinary backgrounds. She is also the co-director for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Neuroscience Foundations Course. Dr. Franks graduated magna cum laude with her Bachelor of Arts degree from The Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO, where she was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. She completed medical school at the University of Colorado at Denver School of Medicine, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. As a medical student, she received the Franklin Gengenbach Award for outstanding performance in pediatrics. She completed her residency in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities at the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh prior to joining the faculty. She has been inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Franks’s clinical practice is located at the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Child Development Unit where she provides diagnostic recommendations and medical management to children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, including developmental delays and intellectual disability, neurogenetic conditions, mitochondrial disease, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and ADHD, in addition to many other neurologic and developmental conditions. Dr. Franks has an academic interest in both undergraduate and graduate medical education, and specifically developing novel approaches and tools for education in neurodevelopmental disabilities.

She has participated in preclinical research investigating how perinatal exposures to glucocorticoids and complications of prematurity can influence early life brain development. She is engaged in clinical research evaluating how variable levels of trust in physicians and allopathic medicine by families of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities relates to medical outcomes, with a goal to develop provider-centric strategies to optimize relationships with families. She is a passionate advocate for patients, and she levies her education background to develop resources and support families as they navigate through obtaining resources and social supports and accessing special education services.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

• American Academy of Neurology, 2014-Present 
• American Academy of Pediatrics, 2012-Present 
• American Medical Association, 2008-Present 
• Child Neurology Society, 2017-Present 
• Society for Neuroscience, 2017-Present 
• Pennsylvania Medical Society, 2018-2019