Steven Kirshblum, MD

Steven Kirshblum, MD, chief medical officer of Kessler Foundation, is a nationally recognized expert in spinal cord injury rehabilitation and research who also co-directs the Foundation’s Reynolds Center for Spinal Stimulation and the Centers for Spinal Cord Injury Research. Dr. Kirshblum is board-certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and spinal cord medicine. At Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, part of Select Medical Corporation, he serves as chief medical officer and director of Spinal Cord Injury Services. He is also the chief academic officer for Select Medical’s rehabilitation hospital division.

As project co-director of the Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury Model System, one of only 14 federally designated centers in the country, Dr. Kirshblum oversees spinal cord injury research and its translation to patient care. He is a professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School where he chairs the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is program director for the Spinal Cord Injury Medicine Fellowship Program.

Dr. Kirshblum has written hundreds of articles, abstracts, monographs and book chapters, and is the editor of the textbook, Spinal Cord Medicine (now in its third edition), and author of a children's book about spinal cord injury. He has delivered more than 500 lectures and keynote addresses at national and international meetings.

Dr. Kirshblum has been honored by numerous professional and humanitarian organizations and is consistently named among the top physicians in his field by independent surveys. He is a member of the board of trustees for the American Spinal Injury Association and a past President of the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals and American Paraplegia Society. He also serves on numerous advisory boards and foundations for spinal cord research.