Meet Our Team

Aaron CW Lasker, MD

Dr. Lasker joined Penn Neurology in 2021 as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology and is the Director of the Huntington Disease Center at Penn Medicine. Dr. Lasker was most recently Medical Director of the Movement Disorders Center at St. Luke's University Health Network. A graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Lasker completed his residency and a joint fellowship in movement disorders and cognitive neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the Harvard Neurology Program under the mentorship of Dr. Samuel Frank, noted HD researcher and clinician. 

Natali Baner, MD

Natali Baner, MD, is a pediatric neurologist with the Division of Neurology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and joined the staff of the HD Clinic at Penn in May of 2024. Dr. Baner is a general neurologist with special interest in neuropsychiatric illnesses. She was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and enjoys working with Spanish speaking patients, particularly those who may encounter challenges in accessing care due to language barriers. Dr. Baner is also involved in the Spanish speaking clinic.

Rachel Paul, MS, CGC

Rachel A. Paul, MS, CGC is a board-certified genetic counselor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. She provides genetic counseling services for the Division of Movement Disorders, meeting with patients who have a personal/family history of ataxia, Huntington’s disease, dystonia, Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonian disorders (e.g., DLB, PSP, CBS, MSA), or related conditions. Her research interests include genetic counseling, remote/telemedicine genetic services, and motivations/barriers for genetics utilization. Rachel graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia, and previously worked as the administrative assistant for the Penn’s neurology genetic counselors. She completed her training with the Arcadia University (now University of Pennsylvania) Genetic Counseling Program.

Alexander S. Zwil, MD

Dr. Alexander Zwil is the HD Team’s neuropsychiatrist. 

He is a graduate of the Temple University School of Medicine, and completed a residency in General Psychiatry and a fellowship in Neuropsychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. 

He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Penn Behavioral Health, and Director of the Brain Injury and Behavior Center. His expertise is in the evaluation and treatment of neurobehavioral sequelae of traumatic brain injuries and other neurological conditions.

Gavin Villacorta, MSN, CRNP

Gavin Villacorta, MSN, CRNP received his BSN and MSN from Villanova University. He was an inpatient bedside RN for five years and a Unit Based RN Educator for two years at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia.  In April 2023, he joined PDMDC as a CRNP.  He has had a long-standing interest in providing care to adult populations with movement disorders.  He is an avid runner, who enjoys exploring Philadelphia with his wife and young son. 

Gloria Williams, MSW

Gloria Williams, MSW, graduated from Delaware State University with a Master of Social Work in 2023. She completed her advanced field placement at Community Behavioral Health, where she promoted the importance of mental health support within the community. For the past two years, Gloria has worked as a crisis response technician at a local emergency crisis center. During this time, she discovered her passion for supporting patients and families living with neurological conditions. Gloria is also passionate about community service. She is excited to join the team at Penn's Huntington's Disease Center, where she looks forward to providing support to patients and their families throughout their Huntington's journey.

Megan Barbuto, MOT, OTR/L

Megan Reid, MOT, OTR/L received her Master of Occupational Therapy from Temple University. Megan has had experience in acute care, inpatient rehabilitation, and outpatient rehabilitation settings. This diversity makes Megan uniquely skilled in working with individuals with complex medical backgrounds and those who have progressed through the continuum of care. She has worked with diverse diagnoses; some of which include Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, dementia, ALS, TBI, MS, stroke, and orthopedic conditions. Megan has established a special interest in the neurologic population. She serves as the occupational therapist for several multidisciplinary clinics including COPE clinic for individuals with Atypical Parkinsonism's, ALS clinic, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) clinic, and HD clinic. She takes passion in providing individualized care as part of an interdisciplinary team of providers at Penn Therapy & Fitness' Dan Aaron Parkinson's Rehabilitation Center at Pennsylvania Hospital. 

Heather Cianci, PT, MS, GCS

Heather Cianci, PT, MS, GCS is the Outpatient Neurological Team Leader and founding therapist of the Dan Aaron Parkinson’s Rehabilitation Center, Penn Therapy & Fitness at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, PA – part of the University of Pennsylvania.

Heather received her Bachelor’s in Physical Therapy from the University of Scranton in Scranton, PA and her Master’s in Gerontology from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

She has been a physical therapist since 1994 and received her board certification in geriatrics in 1999 from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties. Heather is an LSVT® BIG certified clinician, a PWR! certified clinician, a graduate of the Rock Steady Boxing program for Parkinson’s and is certified in Music and Memory®. She serves as an LSVT® BIG Faculty Instructor for LSVT Global, Inc., and Co-coordinator and PT Faculty for the Parkinson’s Foundation’s (PF) Team Training Program.

Heather has authored book chapters on rehabilitative strategies for PD, and Frontotemporal Degeneration. She also is the author of the PF educational manual “Fitness Counts.”

Her research includes movement strategies for bed mobility, falls, freezing of gait, and functional movement disorders. She teaches about rehabilitation and PD at Thomas Jefferson University’s (Philadelphia, PA) and Neumann University’s (Aston, PA) departments of PT.

Victoria Gonzalez, MS, CCC-SLP

Victoria Gonzalez, MS, CCC-SLP has received her Master’s of Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders in 2022 at Columbia University, where she was initially exposed to movement disorders populations (Parkinson’s Disease, atypical parkinsonian disorders) in the Laboratory for Upper Airway Dysfunction as a graduate research assistant and clinical intern. She has her Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) and maintains Speech Language Pathology state licensure to assess and treat patients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. She has worked with patients with a wide variety of medical diagnoses (e.g., Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Myasthenia Gravis, Head and Neck Cancer, dementia, TBI, stroke) seeking assessment and treatment for cognitive-communication, swallowing, voice, speech, language, and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Further, she has worked with patients seeking gender-affirming voice therapy. Victoria has seen these diverse patient populations across the healthcare continuum, including acute care, inpatient rehabilitation, and outpatient rehabilitation settings. She is certified in LSVT LOUD therapy. This range of experience makes Victoria skilled in working with individuals who have complex medical backgrounds. She participates as a team member in multidisciplinary clinics including pre-DBS screening, Huntington’s Disease Clinic, Comprehensive Outpatient Parkinsonism Evaluation (COPE) Clinic, and Ataxia Clinic.

Kathy Lawler, D.PHIL, ABCN

Dr. Kathy Lawler is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Neuropsychology and the Director of Neuropsychology in the Department of Neurology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.  

She has over twenty years of clinical experience evaluating and treating patients with Huntington disease and other neurological disorders. Neuropsychological evaluations provide information regarding the individual’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, emotional functioning, address patient and family education and recommendations for rehabilitation, disability concerns, and work/school accommodations.  

Dr. Lawler received her D.Phil in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford, where she was an E. P. Abraham Scientific Research Scholar and Wolfson College Scholar.  

She completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in neuroanatomy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and obtained post-doctoral training and certification in Cognitive Behavior Therapy at the Center for Cognitive Therapy, University of Pennsylvania.     

Gwenivere Toti, BS

Gwenivere Toti, BS received her bachelor of Science from Cabrini University 2003. Gwen has had experience as a Physical Therapy Aid, Medical Assistant, Clinical Trial Associate and Clinical Research Coordinator (in Ophthalmology and Neurology). This diversity gives Gwen a unique skill set in working with her research patients. She has been here at Penn  and part of the team for almost 2 years.  Gwen runs one observational and multiple interventional clinical trials for Huntington’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.  She takes pride in her work and her connection with her patients.  When she is not working, Gwen enjoys spending time with her husband, son and two rambunctious dogs.

Jenna Bucolo, BSN, RN

Jenna Bucolo, BSN, RN is the Nurse Coordinator for the Huntington’s Disease Center at Penn Medicine. Jenna has a Bachelors Degree in Biology from Stockton University and a Bachelors in  Nursing from Widener University. She began her nursing career working on a Surgical Stepdown Unit working with surgical patients. She then spent multiple years working in Emergency medicine. Jenna has now provided nursing care to families in our neurology department for 2 years and counting and is eager to provide support to our Huntington's patients and their family members.