Chief Medical Officer

Steven Kirshblum, M.D.

Dr. Steven Kirshblum is the chief medical officer for Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. He is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and spinal cord injury medicine. He is a professor and chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and the spinal cord injury medicine fellowship program director. In addition, Dr. Kirshblum is the chief medical officer for the Kessler Foundation and co-director of its Center for Spinal Stimulation.

Dr. Kirshblum began his career at Kessler in 1990. He is the project co-director of the Northern New Jersey Model Spinal Cord Injury System, one of only 18 federally-designated centers in the country. He is a past President of the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals and American Paraplegia Society, past board member of the American Spinal Injury Association and has served and continues to serve on numerous advisory boards and foundations for spinal cord research. He is currently on the board of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation. He is involved in research, with more than 240 peer-reviewed publications, is the editor of three textbooks in spinal cord injury medicine and a children’s book related to spinal cord injury.

Dr. Kirshblum earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Fairleigh Dickinson University and his medical degree from the University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School. He completed a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.