Karin Marie Muraszko is Julian T. Hoff Professor and chair of the Department of
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...
at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. She is the first woman to head a neurosurgery department at any medical school in the US.
She specializes in brain and spinal cord abnormalities. She has a spinal cord abnormality,
spina bifida
Spina bifida (Latin for 'split spine'; SB) is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development in pregnancy. There are three main types: spina bifida occulta, me ...
.
[
]
Early life and education
She was born on in Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.[B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...]
at Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
in 1977 with a major in history and biology. Muraszko obtained her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) is the graduate medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Founded i ...
in 1981.[ She initially intended to specialize in psychiatry but switched to neurological surgery in her third year.][
She was the first neurosurgery resident with a physical disability at ]Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...
where the chairman of the neurological surgery department described her as "...the most outstanding person I've met in medicine" and further "...her intelligence, tenacity and motivation have enabled her to make a remarkable contribution to the care of our patients". She completed her residency in 1988.
Career
From 1988 to 1990 Muraszko worked as a Senior Staff Fellow at the National Institutes of Health-NINDS. She moved to the University of Michigan in 1990 where she headed the pediatric neurosurgery service from 1995. In 2005 she became Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery.[ She is the first woman to Chair a Neurosurgery Department in the United States.
Muraszko is a specialist in pediatric neurosurgery. Her main interests are treating brain tumors, Chiari malformations, congenital spinal and brain abnormalities and complex craniofacial anomalies.
Muraszko is the first woman to serve as director of the ]American Board of Neurological Surgery
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
.
Muraszko serves on the Physician's Advisory Committee of the Spina Bifida Association of America and the March of Dimes
March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. The organization was founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, to comba ...
.[ She is the medical director of "Project Shunt", the neurosurgery component of an annual medical mission by the Michigan, Ohio, chapter of the medical charity "Healing the Children" to ]Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
, which has one of the highest incidences of spina bifida in the world. Muraszko was elected as the first woman to be President of the Society of Neurological Surgeons during the SNS Centennial celebration year. She is a founding member of Women in Neurosurgery.
Selected articles
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Awards and honors
* In 2005 the Association of Women Surgeons
The Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) is a non-profit educational and professional organization founded in 1981. With over 2,000 members in 21 countries, both women and men, AWS is one of the largest international organizations dedicated to suppo ...
awarded her the Nina Starr Braunwald
Nina Starr Braunwald (1928–1992) was an American thoracic surgeon and medical researcher who was among the first women to perform open-heart surgery. She was also the first woman to be certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, and the ...
Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of women in surgery".
* In 2014 Muraszko received the Inspirational Physician Award from the American Medical Association
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016.
The AMA's state ...
's Women Physicians Section.
* Muraszko received the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Distinguished Service Award in 2015.[
* Awarded the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Humanitarian Award in 2016.][
]
Personal life
She is married to Scott Van Sweringen, an architect; they have twin children. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...
.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Muraszko, Karin
American medical academics
Living people
American people with disabilities
American neurosurgeons
People with spina bifida
University of Michigan faculty
People from Jersey City, New Jersey
Yale University alumni
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni
1955 births
Scientists with disabilities