Board certified in forensic neuropsychology and fellowship-trained, Dr. Paul Lebby joined Valley Children’s in 2006 as a clinical neuropsychologist in the department of neuropsychology. He is currently medical director, neuropsychology, and director, neurodevelopment in addition to being a senior neuropsychologist.
Dr. Lebby carries the rank of professor emeritus and was elected to fellow status with the National Academy of Neuropsychology, one of only five specialists worldwide given the honor that year.
Dedicated to delivering the best care to his patients and their families, Dr. Lebby provides clinical consultation and conducts evaluations and assessments of individuals with known or suspected neurological compromise. For more than 25 years, he has specialized in complex neurodiagnostic procedures and assessment of brain functioning or dysfunction.
He is credentialed to perform brain-mapping procedures during awake brain surgery; Wada (transfemoral intracarotid sodium amytal/methahexital) procedures utilizing interventional radiology techniques with catheterization of the brain; and advanced neuroradiology techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and MRI-based diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography. He is the only specialist who performs this combination of procedures in Central California, and one of only a few specialists nationwide with experience conducting these procedures with pediatric patients as young as 5 years old.
Dr. Lebby has formal training and more than two decades’ experience integrating neuroimaging into his clinical practice. He provides instruction for all levels of clinicians, from attending physicians, doctoral interns and medical residents, to medical and graduate students in addition to allied healthcare specialists locally and throughout the country.
Dr. Lebby is a published author and has written two books. He co-authored the first, “Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Adolescents,” with his intern. He was the sole author of his second book, “Brain Imaging: A Guide for Clinicians” by Oxford University Press, which was recently updated and is printed in hard cover, paperback and electronic versions.
He has published several book chapters, the most recent being, “Traumatic Encephalopathies,” in a textbook on child and adolescent neurology. Dr. Lebby has also published multiple research articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has developed and published two assessment measures of neurocognitive functioning, one for children and one for adolescents, used across the country and internationally.
A committed researcher, Dr. Lebby has chaired more than 80 doctoral dissertations on topics relating to brain functioning and pathology, and clinical neuroscience. He is frequently invited to present at professional conferences and symposiums across the country, and has been invited to present keynote addresses at national meetings. Active in the community, he serves on the board of Valley Children’s Hospital Adaptive Sports program, and is a past president of the Board of Directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of Central California. He has acted as a member of the Board of Trustees of Alliant International University and remains a member of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
Dr. Lebby received his doctorate in psychology with an emphasis in clinical neuropsychology and neurophysiology at University of California, Berkeley. He completed a predoctoral internship and a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology in the departments of neurology and neurosurgery at University of California, San Francisco.
In his free time, Dr. Lebby enjoys photography, rock climbing in the Sierra Nevada, camping with his family, and flying as a licensed pilot.