Recorded October 2015 in Washington, DC
Nina F. Schor, MD, PhD
Dr. Nina Schor is the seventh Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and the William H. Eilinger Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is also Pediatrician-in-Chief of the Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong and Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology & Anatomy. Before arriving in Rochester, she was the Chief of the Division of Child Neurology in the Department of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She also served as Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology, and Pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh and held the Carol Ann Craumer Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
A native of New York City, Dr. Schor received her BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, her MD from Cornell University, and her PhD from Rockefeller University. Her work at Rockefeller University resulted in being awarded a U.S. Patent and an IND from the FDA for development of a mucolytic agent for use in children with cystic fibrosis. She did her Pediatrics and Child Neurology residencies at Harvard University, Children’s Hospital of Boston, and the Longwood Area Neurology Program. Dr. Schor heads a research effort aimed at design and development of new strategies for treating tumors of the nervous system, including neuroblastoma and pheochromocytoma and for understanding the developmental mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. She served as Associate Dean for Medical Student Research at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Schor’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health, among other agencies, since 1988.
Dr. Schor has been a Counselor of the Society for Pediatric Research, Secretary-Treasurer of the Child Neurology Society (2004-10), and President of Professors of Child Neurology. She has served most recently as President of the Child Neurology Society (2013-15) and as a member of the Executive Council of the American Pediatric Society and the Science Committee of the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Schor was given the Child Neurology Society’s highest honor, the Hower Award, in October 2017.
Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D.
Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., is the Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
Dr. Koroshetz graduated from Georgetown University and received his M.D. from the University of Chicago. He subsequently trained in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and in both internal medicine and neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He then completed postdoctoral studies in cellular neurophysiology at MGH and the Harvard neurobiology department.
Dr. Koroshetz served as Professor of Neurology at Harvard, Vice Chair of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Director of Stroke and Neurointensive Care, and was a member of the Huntington’s disease unit. He oversaw neurology resident training at MGH from 1990 until 2007 when he moved to Bethesda to become the Deputy Director of NINDS, the leading funder in the United States of brain and nervous system research.
As NINDS Deputy Director, Dr. Koroshetz played an instrumental role in establishing StrokeNet, a national clinical trial network for research in stroke treatment, prevention, and recovery. He championed traumatic brain injury research at the NIH, and was Co-founder of the NIH-Uniformed Services Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine (TBI research center).
Dr. Koroshetz serves as co-chair of the NIH BRAIN Initiative. He was instrumental in establishing the NIH Office of Emergency Research. He is the NINDS representative to the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee; Chair of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee and the NIH Pain Consortium, and Co-chair of the Common Fund Undiagnosed Disease program.