Michael M. Haglund was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 27th, 1958. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Pacific Lutheran University graduating magna cum laude where he was a member of the Cross Country and Track teams. He attended the University of Washington School Of Medicine as part of the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program obtaining his M.D. with Honors and his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics with Philip A. Schwartzkroin, Ph.D. He was elected as a junior medical student to the Alpha Omega Alpha Society. His neurosurgical training under the tutelage of H. Richard Winn, M.D. at the University of Washington School of Medicine included a two year Fellowship in Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School with Gary Blasdel, Ph.D. and one year at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital in Wimbledon, London, England. Dr. Haglund completed his residency with an Epilepsy Surgery Fellowship with George A. Ojemann, M.D. During his neurological surgery residency, Dr. Haglund received the prestigious Klingenstein Foundation Fellowship in the Neurosciences, the AANS Research Fellowship, the Grass Foundation Morison Fellowship, the American Epilepsy Society Lennox Fellowship, and a funding from the Epilepsy Foundation of America. He also was part of multiple patents on the use of optical imaging with Daryl Hochman, Ph.D. Dr. Haglund’s academic areas of interest focused on the surgical treatment of epilepsy, the cortical organization of language, and the use of optical imaging to map seizure onset and propagation. He received the NIH Clinical Investigator Development Award and the Sloan Fellowship on his arrival at Duke and proceeded with funding from NIH, the Dana Foundation and industry grants to provide continuous support for his optical imaging research and his work on multimodality cortical mapping of language. His team was the first to use optical imaging of functional and epileptiform activity in the human brain (Nature, 1992).

Dr. Haglund was appointed as Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina by Dr. David Sabiston, MD, Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Robert H. Wilkins, MD, Division Chief of Neurosurgery in 1995. He currently holds the Distinguished Professorship in Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery and Global Health. He served as the Surgical Director of the Duke Epilepsy Center from 1995-2019 and was the Program Director for Duke Neurosurgery from 2008-2019. He received his Master’s in Academic Medicine in 2016 from the University of Southern California and serves as the Vice Chair of Education in Neurosurgery, creating innovative educational applications including using social learning theory to assess and teach competency based neurosurgical education.

Dr. Haglund has also focused on medical missions and global health work over the last 24 years, in Ecuador for a decade, and now with a neurosurgical project in Uganda. Since 2007, he has helped lead teams of 23-55 medical professionals on 22 trips to Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya donating over 100 tons of medical equipment and supplies worth over 14 million USDs, transforming three neurosurgical units in Uganda, and founding and serving as the Program Director for the first ever Neurosurgery training program in Uganda. As of 2020, 7 new neurosurgeons have been trained, with 9 more are currently in the program. In 2014, he founded the first ever Division of Global Neurosurgery and Neurology in the country with over 60 members focusing on traumatic brain injury treatment and research and developing epilepsy centers of excellence in Uganda. Dr. Haglund is a member of the AANS, CNS, and served as the Scientific Program Chair for the 2013 SNS meeting, the ACGME Milestone 2.0 Committee, the SNS Boot Camp Committee, and currently is on the Executive Council of the SNS as a Member at Large. Dr. Haglund received the AANS Humanitarian Award (2015), as well as the Duke University and the University of Washington Humanitarian Awards in 2018. He was also awarded the Distinguished Alumni award from his alma mater, Pacific Lutheran University (2013). Dr. Haglund was appointed as a Professor of Global Health to the SingHealth Duke-National University of Singapore Global Health Institute in 2019.

Dr. Haglund and his wife Christine were married in 1980 and have two children, Sean, a Manager of Value Consulting and Tanya, a professional dancer and singer in New York with Broadway credits. His interests outside of work include golf, boating, and marriage mentoring at the Summit Church.