Karen L. Skjei, MD, ABPN

Clinical Biography

Karen L. Skjei, MD, ABPN, is an epileptologist in the Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Center within UT Health Austin Pediatric Neurosciences at Dell Children’s. She has particular experience and interest in managing intractable epilepsies, including Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Additionally, Dr. Skjei is an associate professor in the Dell Medical School Department of Neurology and serves as the Director of the new Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-approved pediatric epilepsy fellowship.

Dr. Skjei earned her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco. She completed a residency in child neurology at Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education and a fellowship in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Before her career in medicine, she was a neuroscience researcher at Duke University and the Scripps Research Institution. She also served for two years as a volunteer in the U.S. Peace Corps, living in a small rural village in the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Skjei is the founder and director of a new pediatric epilepsy clinic for Spanish-speaking limited English proficient patients and families and is an active researcher in health care disparities in pediatric epilepsy. She is an invited speaker on pediatric epilepsy topics at both national and international meetings and has eleven peer-reviewed publications. She is a member of the American Epilepsy Society, the American Academy of Neurology, the Child Neurology Society, and the International Child Neurology Association.