Your passport to global affairs

Michael Finkel will chair the Academic WorldQuest competitions for middle school and high school students at NCWA.

He is a native of St. Louis with a B.A. and an M.D. from Washington University. He interned in internal medicine at Rush Medical Center in Chicago and completed his residency in neurology at the University of Rochester. He served in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps for two years and then entered group practice in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. This group merged with Mayo Clinic, and he became an Assistant Professor of Neurology. 

He later moved to Cleveland Clinic in Naples and retired from Physicians Regional Medical Center Group in 2012. He practiced general neurology with adults and children and specialized in behavioral neurology. He participated in the initial years of research on Lyme Disease.

Michael served on many committees with the American Academy of Neurology during his practice. He is a past President of the Wisconsin Neurological Society and the Florida Society of Neurology. He has served as President of the World Neurology Association, the Queen Square Alumnus Organization, and the Retired Physicians Association of Southwest Florida. He has taught neurologists how to be advocates for the profession and their patients as a member of the Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the Florida Society of Neurology. He is a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary and is an alumnus of Greater Naples Leadership.

Michael has always been interested in international affairs. His late mother was Australian, his wife is Norwegian, and his daughter-in-law is Iranian. He studied neurology in London and has been an invited lecturer on every continent except Antarctica. He spends summers in Norway and is attentive to the fact that interpretations of world events often differ from those of the United States.

Michael has been a member of the Naples Council on World Affairs for over a decade and has participated in many National War College presentations plus the monthly book club sessions.