Dr. Aldana is an accomplished pediatric neurosurgeon with nearly 20 years of experience in practice at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.  He is the Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery of Nemours Children’s Health Jacksonville and Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine and Science.  He also holds the H.E. James Endowed Chair in Pediatric Neurosurgery at Wolfson Children’s Hospital (WCH), where he is the Co-director of the Stys Neuroscience Institute.  

After his neurological surgery residency at the University of Miami, he completed a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at the University of Utah/Primary Children’s Medical Center.  In 2006, he joined the faculty of the University of Florida-Jacksonville and Wolfson Children’s Hospital, developing a comprehensive range of pediatric neurosurgery programs.  Under his leadership, the neurosciences at WCH have been consistently recognized for their quality of care by U.S. News & World Report.  In 2014, a philanthropic grant enabled Dr. Aldana to start the Lucy Gooding Pediatric Neuroscience Research Center at WCH, where he has gained national recognition for research on stroke prevention in sickle cell disease and leads a multispecialty research group through the Stroke in Sickle Cell Revascularization Surgery (SiSCRS) Network.  He recently joined the staff of Nemours Children’s Health Jacksonville and the faculty of Mayo Clinic School of Medicine.  

Dr. Aldana has special interests in neuro-endoscopy, stroke, neuro-oncology, spine surgery, and global neurosurgery.  He co-founded the Neurosurgery Outreach Foundation in 2010 with his wife, Carmina.  Together with other volunteers, they have tirelessly worked to advance access to neurosurgical care and build neurosurgical capacity through sustainable collaboration in underserved communities globally.  The Neurosurgery Outreach Foundation impact the lives of countless patients and neurosurgeons in countries far and wide, including the Philippines, Mongolia, Indonesia, Jamaica, and Ethiopia. Its transformative work was recently recognized with the Presidential Award conferred by the Office of the President of the Philippines for advancing neurosurgical care in Filipino underserved communities and by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, where Dr. Aldana was awarded the Humanitarian Award.

For recreation, Dr. Aldana enjoys stand-up paddle boarding, karaoke, traveling with his family, and playing with his dog.