Spotlight
Dr. Stacy Suskauer
Kennedy Krieger Institute
Dr. Stacy Suskauer, Vice President of Rehabilitation, Co-director of the Center for Brain Injury Recovery and Director of the Brain Injury Clinical Research Center.
What makes her an “Audrey” Dr. Stacy Suskauer is Vice President of rehabilitation at Kennedy Krieger Institute, Director for the Division of Pediatric Rehabilitation in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins Medicine and a professor of physical medicine & rehabilitation and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She’s also a research scientist and co-director of the Center for Brain Injury Recovery at Kennedy Krieger.
Dr. Suskauer’s dual role at Kennedy Krieger includes caring for children with brain injuries and clinical research. Her research is focused on understanding and optimizing outcomes after childhood brain injury. Brain injuries can be caused by trauma, stroke, loss of oxygen, tumors, infection, toxic exposure or brain surgery.
When a person has experienced a brain injury, they may have problems with thinking, attention, memory, impulse control, processing, speech and language, behavior, motor abilities and physical functioning. Dr. Suskauer’s team sees patients with brain injuries ranging from mild concussion to those in a state of unresponsive wakefulness, sometimes called a vegetative state.
You might say Dr. Suskauer became an Audrey in middle school, when she volunteered at a summer camp for children with developmental disabilities. She remembers feeling intimidated when she saw all the children in wheelchairs and walkers. Then 13 years old, Dr. Suskauer been assigned to help an older teenage girl eat and tells the story this way: “She could only eat purees off a spoon. But, as I figured out, she really liked this boy counselor and wouldn’t eat when he was walking by.” In that moment, an epiphany struck Dr. Suskauer: these campers were just regular kids who needed a little extra help. In that moment knew she wanted to work with children with disabilities.
As a resident Dr. Suskauer realized she wanted to help children with brain injuries and disorders of consciousness specifically, despite – or perhaps because of – the fact that for her patients and their families, the stakes could not be higher.
Dr. Suskauer is Kennedy Krieger’s Audrey in part because of her dedication to her patients, but more so for her kindness, deep empathy and love for her patients. “Part of what I find really meaningful is that I do develop long term relationships. Families know, I'll always be there to listen to them or help troubleshoot or problem solve. Unfortunately, in most cases, I'm not going to ‘fix’ their child, but we always look for ways to improve their situation. I'll always walk the path with them.”
Notable achievements:
2020 Mitchell Rosenthal Mid-Career Award, American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
2017 Pediatric Rehabilitation Award, American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
2016 Joshua B. Canton Scholar Award, American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine