Marisara Dieppa, M.D.
Assistant Professor

Marisara Dieppa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She serves as the Associate Program Director of the Neurology Residency Program.

Dr. Dieppa earned her medical degree at the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico, where she graduated as High Honor of her MD class and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. She completed her neurology residency at UT Southwestern, being recognized with the Stephen Damm award for her dedicated and compassionate care. She stayed on to finish fellowships in both Clinical Neurophysiology and Sports Neurology. She is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in three different disciplines: Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology and Epilepsy and joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2014.

Dr. Dieppa’s clinical interests include the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of seizures and concussions. While the majority of her practice involves evaluating patients with refractory epilepsy and identifying candidates for neurosurgery, she also participates in the Multidisciplinary Concussion Clinic, where the focus is to provide comprehensive multidisciplinary care to patients with concussion.

Dr. Dieppa has a passion for education and mentoring. She loves to work with trainees at all levels and has been the Associate Program Director of the Neurology Residency Program since 2018, also being Curriculum Director and overseeing didactics for the residency program. In addition, she mentors medical students who have an interest in Neurology as their Faculty Advisor and very much enjoys recruiting medical students into the specialty. Furthermore, she organizes and directs the UT Southwestern Annual Epilepsy Symposium for the local and regional neurology communities.    

Dr. Dieppa is a member of several academic and leadership committees. She has an interest in wellness and represents the Department of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics in the Faculty Senate.

Dr. Dieppa is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Epilepsy Society and the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society.

Medical School

Ponce School of Medicine (2009)

Residency

UT Southwestern Medical Center (2013), Neurology

Fellowship

UT Southwestern Medical Center (2014), Neurophysiology

• Concussion
• Electroencephalography
• Epilepsy surgery
• Medical Education

Featured Publications

Comparison of Psychiatric Comorbidities and Impact on Quality of Life in Patients With Epilepsy or Psychogenic Nonepileptic Spells

Abe C, Denney D, Doyle A, Cullum M, Adams J, Perven G, Dave H, Dieppa M, Hays R, Agostini M, Ding K Epilepsy Behav. 2020 Jan;102:106649. 2020

Traumatic brain injury history is associated with an earlier age of dementia onset in autopsy-confirmed Alzheimer's disease.

Schaffert J, LoBue C, White CL, Chiang HS, Didehbani N, Lacritz L, Rossetti H, Dieppa M, Hart J, Cullum CM. Neuropsychology. 2018 May;32(4):410-416. 2018

Reliability of self-reported concussion history in retired NFL players

Nyaz Didehbani, Kristin Wilmoth, Lindy Fields, Christian LoBue, Jeremy Strain, Jeffrey Spence, Marisara Dieppa, Munro Cullum and John Hart Annals of Sports Medicine and Research 2017 2017

Multiple Sclerosis Disease Progression and Paradichlorobenzene: A Tale of Mothballs and Toilet Cleaner

Hession RM, Sharma V, Spiegel DE, Tat C, Hwang DG, Dieppa M, Mahdavi Z, Marder E, Stüve O. JAMA Neurol. 2014 Feb;71(2):228-32. 2014

• Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society
  Ponce School of Medicine (2008)
• American Academy of Neurology Annual meeting Resident scholarship
  (2012)
• High Honor MD class of 2009
  Ponce School of Medicine
• Stephen Damm Memorial Award
  For excellence in patient management, clinical care, compassion and advocacy for patients and their families; UT Southwestern (2013)

• American Clinical Neurophysiology Society (2018)
• American Epilepsy Society (2017)
• American Academy of Neurology (2009)