Medical Leadership
B. Lee Peterlin, DO, FAHS
Founder & Medical Director
Dr. Peterlin is a board-certified neurologist and fellowship-trained, UCNS-certified headache subspecialist. She is one of fewer than 900 physicians in the United States and Canada to hold this certification, in a field where workforce analyses estimate the United States needs roughly 3,700 headache specialists to meet patient demand.¹ She founded Pennsylvania Headache Center to bring this level of subspecialty care to patients in Chester County and Central Pennsylvania.
Training & Board Certification
Dr. Peterlin earned her medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her neurology residency and a neurophysiology fellowship at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, followed by her headache medicine fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She is board-certified in neurology by the American Osteopathic Board of Neurology and Psychiatry and certified in Headache Medicine by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties (UCNS). She currently holds an Adjunct Professor appointment in the Department of Neurology at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Academic & Research Career
Before founding Pennsylvania Headache Center, Dr. Peterlin advanced through academic leadership positions in headache medicine. She served as Director of the Headache Center at Drexel University College of Medicine (2007–2010), then as Director of Headache Research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2010–2017), where she was promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor of Neurology and built the department's headache research program from the ground up. She subsequently served as Director of the Headache Center at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health (2017–2021). Dr. Peterlin's research has focused on translational science aimed at advancing the understanding of hypothalamically-mediated comorbidities (e.g. obesity, PTSD) and the identification of potential novel hypothalamically-mediated migraine biomarkers and drug targets (e.g., adipocytokines). She has served as principal investigator and co-investigator on NIH-funded headache research, with additional support from foundation and pharmaceutical funding. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, seven book chapters, and co-edited Menstrual Migraine (Oxford University Press). One of her review articles on obesity and headache was the most-cited paper in the journal Headache the year of its publication.
Field Leadership
Dr. Peterlin is a Fellow of the American Headache Society (FAHS) and has held editorial appointments at several leading journals in the field, including the editorial board of Neurology — the flagship journal of the American Academy of Neurology — and Associate Editor roles at Headache and Frontiers in Pain Research. She also served as a Science Editor for the CGRP Forum.
She has helped shape national and international standards in headache medicine through committee leadership, including service as Co-Chair of the Biomarker Subgroup of the NINDS Headache Common Data Elements Committee and as a member of the European Headache Federation Expert Consensus Committee on Hormonal Contraception and Migraine. She has also chaired or served on education committees for the American Headache Society, the International Headache Society, and the Southern Headache Society. Throughout her academic career she has mentored residents, fellows, and junior faculty, several of whom now hold faculty appointments at institutions including Yale, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Miami.
Recognition & Outreach
Dr. Peterlin received the National Headache Foundation's Lectureship Award for her work on the relationship between migraine and obesity, and has been an invited keynote and plenary speaker at major national meetings, including the National Headache Foundation Headache Research Summit and the American Academy of Pain Management Annual Meeting. She has lectured internationally in Canada, Italy, India, and Peru, and has presented at international congresses in the United Kingdom and Denmark.
¹ Begasse de Dhaem O et al. Workforce gap analysis in the field of headache medicine in the United States. Headache. 2020;60(3):478–481. doi:10.1111/head.13752
Practice Operations
Shannon Main Practice Manager
Shannon Main serves as Practice Manager of Pennsylvania Headache Center, where she leads the day-to-day operations of both the Exton and Camp Hill offices. She brings more than 15 years of clinical and administrative experience to this role, with a foundation in pain management and headache care, complemented by extensive experience in the health insurance industry — a combination that has made her uniquely effective at navigating the operational and insurance-related challenges that headache patients face.
Shannon directs all administrative, operational, and patient-facing functions of the practice. Her responsibilities span patient scheduling, intake, and care coordination across both office locations; oversight of prior authorizations and insurance appeals for imaging, infusions, procedures, and medications; billing oversight; vendor management; staff hiring, training, and supervision; electronic medical record system oversight; HIPAA and regulatory compliance; financial operations; and multi-office coordination. She works in close partnership with Dr. Peterlin to translate the practice's clinical mission into the systems and workflows that allow patients to receive timely, well-coordinated care. She also supports the practice's patient education and outreach efforts, including the development of patient-facing materials.
Shannon's prior background in the health insurance industry gives her a perspective that benefits patients directly. She understands how prior authorization processes work from both sides of the desk — what payers require, where claims commonly stall, and how to advocate effectively when a medically necessary treatment is initially denied. For patients with headache disorders, who often face unusually complex authorization requirements for specialty medications, infusions, and procedures, this experience translates into faster resolution times and fewer barriers to care.
“I’ve been a migraine sufferer for 25 years and patient of Dr. Peterlin’s for five years. After seeing a number of medical specialists over the years who didn’t really offer solutions, I really appreciate how special Dr. Peterlin is. She takes the time to listen, she offers good advice, and she’s very knowledgeable about a wide variety of treatment options. She has been right beside me on my journey to find relief. I used to have headaches more days than not in any given month before I started seeing Dr. Peterlin. Now I have months when I have no headaches, and on the months when I do have a headache, I know how to treat them.”
- Barbara Z.