Karen Keough, M.D.

About

Dr. Karen Keough earned her Bachelor of Science in psychology at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and also studied molecular biology at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. She earned her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her pediatrics residency at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center in San Antonio, where she also served as chief resident.

Following her residency, Dr. Keough pursued a fellowship in pediatric neurology at Duke University. After three years in the Air Force as a child neurologist, she completed an additional fellowship in electroencephalography and epilepsy at Baylor University School of Medicine. She then returned to Wilford Hall Medical Center to serve as director of epilepsy services and chief of child neurology.

Dr. Keough moved to Austin in 2006 and initiated the child neurology residency program in 2012, now affiliated with Dell Medical School at the University of Texas, Austin where she held faculty appointment as assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology until 2023.  Currently she holds an appointment as clinical associate professor of pediatrics for Texas A&M Medical School. She has served for three years as an elected board member of the Professors of Child Neurology and was chairperson of the Education Special Interest Group (SIG) for the Child Neurology Society from 2013 - 2018.

She served on the Neurology Child Examination Committee for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology from 2015 through 2022. Dr. Keough founded the Tuberous Sclerosis Center in Austin and served as co-director from 2012 through 2022. She currently serves on the advisory board for the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance, a national non-profit dedicated to finding a cure for TSC and is the director of the TSC Clinic at Pediatrix Neurology of Austin. From 2018 – 2022, Dr. Keough served as chief medical officer for Compassionate Cultivation, an Austin, Texas-based company licensed by the state to grow, process, and dispense medical cannabis.

Her primary clinical focus is refractory epilepsy, though she continues to participate actively in the general child neurology hospital service to work with medical students to maintain her edge for treating other clinical neurologic conditions.

She currently serves as the Medical Director for Pediatrix Specialty Care of Austin

Texas A&M College of Medicine, Faculty Member — medical student education during general pediatrics inpatient rotations, and on clinical electives for child neurology

Special Interests:

• Refractory epilepsy, including evaluation for epilepsy surgery