Dr. Susan Koh grew up in Los Angeles, where her father, an orthopedic surgeon, settled after immigrating from South Korea and repeating his orthopedic residency in Lexington, Kentucky. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College, majoring in psychobiology; this is where she took her first neuroanatomy class and fell in love with the brain. Although her family initially thought she would become an architect when she was little, she surprised them all and decided to pursue medicine. She graduated from medical school and completed her residency in child neurology in her hometown of Los Angeles at the University of Southern California (USC). Her residency director at USC was last year’s recipient of the Roger and Mary Brumback Lifetime Achievement Award, Dr. Wendy Mitchell. During her internship year at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, she became interested in pediatric epilepsy after watching one of her mentors, Dr. Lan Chen, perform a consult in the infant ward, where she saw an EEG for the first time. This interest was furthered after spending time learning from Drs. Tallie Baram and Carter Snead during her residency. Dr. Koh eventually pursued a pediatric epilepsy fellowship at Miami Children’s with Drs. Michael Duchowny, Trevor Resnick, and Prasanna Jayakar. While there, she developed an interest in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), participating in the tuberous sclerosis clinic at Miami Children’s and writing several clinical research papers and articles about TSC with her mentors. This was when her lifelong dedication to the care of patients with TSC began.
Dr. Koh’s first “real job” was as an assistant professor at UCLA in the Division of Child Neurology with Drs. Raman Sankar and Don Shields, where she became the director of the Pediatric Clinical Neurophysiology Lab at UCLA. She continued her work with TSC patients, establishing the first tuberous sclerosis clinic at UCLA, and also began her lifelong commitment to education by starting the pediatric epilepsy fellowship program at UCLA in 2000. Her life outside of work also blossomed during this time. She met and then married her husband, James Chin, in 2002, and they became the parents of two wonderful daughters, Miranda and Natalie.
In 2008, Children’s Hospital Colorado was incredibly fortunate to recruit Dr. Koh to build their epilepsy program. During the recruitment process, Colorado had an advantage since she was also interviewing at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago in February—hands down, the weather would be better in Denver. At Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO), she became the epilepsy program director and once again created an ACGME-approved epilepsy fellowship program, grew the EEG lab and EMU, recruited multiple epilepsy providers, and established the program as the first Level 4 NAEC pediatric epilepsy center in Colorado. She also continued her lifetime of service to the tuberous sclerosis community. Dr. Koh directed the TSC clinic at Children’s Colorado for 17 years. In partnership with the wonderful TSC nurse care coordinator, Wynne Bird, Dr. Koh expanded the TSC clinic into a multidisciplinary program including neurology, neuropsychology, genetics, developmental pediatrics, urology, nephrology, and dermatology, increasing access from four patients to 10 patients seen monthly, doubling access for these patients. Her team also participated with the local TSC community outside of clinic, including participating in the annual Step Forward to Cure TSC walks, hosting regional talks on TSC, and participating in multiple clinical trials.
Always willing to do whatever her colleagues and the section needed, and tiring of the pleading requests from her section head, Dr. Koh agreed to transition into the role of medical director, taking on an even greater role in recruitment, administration, and program development. Throughout this time, she continued to participate in clinical research trials, predominantly in tuberous sclerosis, and remained actively involved in mentoring and teaching fellows and residents in child neurology and epilepsy.
Dr. Koh was promoted to Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2015. She has been active in committee service for both the American Epilepsy Society and the Child Neurology Society, where she served as chair of the Membership Committee for several years. She is a fellow of both AES and CNS and has given lectures and moderated several symposiums at both AES and CNS annual meetings. She has also been involved in committee work with the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the TS Alliance. She retired from Children’s Colorado at the start of this year and remains a professor emeritus. She is actively involved in teaching medical students as well as participating as an admissions committee member for the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Koh takes great joy in mentoring new medical students and encouraging them to consider the field of child neurology. She hopes to inspire them to pursue a role in clinical epilepsy.
Dr. Koh enjoys cooking for friends and family, hiking, yoga, taking classes in art history, and working in an art studio for weaving and metalsmithing. She is the mother of two adult daughters: Miranda, who is an environmental consultant in Colorado, and Natalie, who is a college student at UC Santa Cruz. She has been happily married for 24 years to James Chin, a financial analyst. She is looking forward to traveling more in the future and enjoying time with her friends, colleagues, and family. Her focus on service continues in retirement as she keeps in touch with her close colleagues and provides care to her aging parents.
Dr. Koh embodies the qualities celebrated by the Roger & Mary Brumback Lifetime Achievement Award, including an outstanding commitment to child neurology, patient care, and humanism in medicine. She cares deeply about the physical and emotional well-being of her patients and their families, her trainees, and her colleagues. At Children’s Colorado, Dr. Koh is revered for being the “mom” for all members of the section, faculty, staff, and trainees. Her first thought was always for the well-being of her colleagues. In the early days at CHCO, she would call the EEG lab so often to check on everyone with the phrase, “Hi, it’s me, Susan,” that she quickly became known as “me Susan.” Her dedication to her colleagues was so strong that they had to stop including her in discussions of coverage for sick days and schedule changes because she would simply cover everyone herself. It could be challenging to protect “me Susan” from herself.
If anyone needed advice, support, coverage, or just someone to talk with, she was always the first one there to help. Although pathologically humble about her expertise, she would always be able to answer any clinical or academic questions brought to her (which happened nearly constantly). She was also legendary for her efficiency in responding to emails, texts, and questions within minutes, regardless of the time of day (she continues to do this, and we still don’t fully understand how she manages it, but we think her ability to type incredibly quickly likely plays a role). She is somehow always available to address concerns, personal or work-related, with a calm and supportive approach (and with lots of gummy bears—which make everything better). She is like Mary Poppins—practically perfect in every way and loved by all.
Dr. Koh’s dedication to her patients and colleagues has been recognized through the numerous awards she has received, including an award for excellence in teaching and clinical care in child neurology from her peers at Children’s Colorado, as well as Physician of the Year from the Colorado Rocky Mountain Chapter of NAPNAP (National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners). She is deeply respected for her kindness, empathy, and patience, as well as her extensive knowledge and expertise in pediatric epilepsy. Dr. Koh is the neurologist all of us would want for our children and the colleague all of us want by our side. She is a most worthy recipient of the Roger & Mary Brumback Lifetime Achievement Award.