Zarina S. Ali, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Orthopedic Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and serves as Chief of Neurosurgery at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. She is Vice Chair of Clinical Operations and Quality Improvement in the Department of Neurosurgery and also serves as Co-Director of the multidisciplinary Penn Nerve Center.
After completing her undergraduate and medical education at the University of Rochester’s combined degree program, Ali underwent residency training in neurosurgery and subspecialty fellowship training in peripheral nerve surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She then joined the Penn faculty as the first female neurosurgeon at Pennsylvania Hospital, where she developed a robust surgical practice specializing in nerve entrapment syndromes, peripheral nerve tumors, and complex reconstructive procedures of the peripheral nerves, as well as the surgical treatment of degenerative spine disease.
Her research includes federally funded studies on opioid stewardship following surgery and work on tissue-engineering strategies to promote peripheral nerve regeneration, in collaboration with the Center for Neurotrauma, Neurodegeneration & Restoration at Penn. Among her accomplishments, she established one of the nation’s first neurosurgical Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programs—a value-based care approach to spine and peripheral nerve surgery.
