SCI Superstar: Dr. Susan Harkema

We have many heroes in the spinal cord injury community, notably SCI researchers, and one of the most well known is Dr. Susan Harkema, Director of Victory Over Paralysis, formally known as the Neurorecovery Network. She’s also the Rehabilitation Research Director of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at the University of Louisville. 

Dr. Harkema is one of the researchers who discovered that electrically stimulating the spinal cord can return a volition of movement in small increments to people with paralysis. But research wasn’t always on her radar. From a career she thought was headed towards athletic training, Michigan-born Harkema was lured to the warmer weather of California where she discovered a passion for spinal cord injury research.

Read on to see how Dr. Harkema’s determination to find a SCI treatment has put her in the history books.

Why She’s Fearless

Growing up in Michigan, Dr. Harkema attended Michigan State, and in the beginning of her college experience, she started out computer science major, and then switched to electrical engineering. 

Dr. Harkema eventually turned to research after working as a research tech in college, and this was where she found herself the most happy and the most challenged. After this experience she knew exactly what she wanted to do – full on research.

After graduating, Dr. Harkema went to California to study with her mentor who was also studying spinal cord injuries – UCLA’s Dr. Reggie Edgerton – and they looked at the possibilities of electrically stimulating the spinal cord for a couple of years. Eventually they were able to discover the right amount of stimulation needed from the electrodes enabled movements.

While in California she also studied for her doctorate in physiology, and after graduating she was recruited to head a research lab at the University of Louisville in 2005. 

What’s Next?

Since being the director of the Neurorecovery Center now known as V, Dr. Harkema worked with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and helped set-up several activity-based recovery centers. This therapy, combined with electrical stimulation to the spinal cord, has produced bladder, bowel and sexual return. Some people can take steps on their own, while others have had sensation and muscle mass return. 

One of the first people to receive the 16 electrodes (implanted right below the level of injury) was former college baseball player Rob Summers. Hundreds of more people have been implanted with the same device/electrodes since that start of her research and many (not all) have experienced similar results, with even those with complete injuries seeing return.

— Visit her research site: Victory Over Paralysis