Dr. Akman is a Professor of Neurology at CUIMC and chief of the Division of Child Neurology in the Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.

Dr. Akman was born and educated in Ankara, Turkey where she graduated with Honors from the School of Medicine, Ankara University. Dr. Akman completed her training in Child Neurology at State University of New York, followed by a fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology and Epilepsy at Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, Dr Akman joined the Division of Child Neurology and the Pediatric Epilepsy Program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where she participated in clinical education and patient care until 2008. Between 2008 and 2010, Dr. Akman worked as the Director of Clinical Epilepsy Research at Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine. Dr Akman returned to Columbia in 2010 and now heads both the Division of Child Neurology and the Pediatric Epilepsy Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Dr. Akman's research concentrate on epilepsy surgery, outcome of epilepsy surgery, cortical dysplasia and neurostimulation treatment for drug resistant epilepsy. Her clinical practice focuses on epilepsy surgery, Tuberous sclerosis, infantile and childhood onset epilepsy syndromes, and cerebral palsy associated with epilepsy.