The Jeffrey Kreutzer Lecture in Brain Injury Rehabilitation

The Heading Forward Planning Committee is pleased to announce the 2021 inaugural Jeffrey Kreutzer Lecture in Brain Injury Rehabilitation. Dr. Kreutzer joined the conference Planning Committee in 1983, assumed the role of chairperson several years later, and continued in that role for 35 years. The Jeffrey Kreutzer Lecture is a recognition of Dr. Kreutzer’s lifetime achievement and his tireless championing for survivors of brain injury and their families. He has stated, “Our work should be guided by the experiences of the people we serve, our perception of their needs, and our sense of the most important things we can do to meaningfully improve their lives.” Each year the lecture will feature a survivor, caregiver, clinician, or researcher who exemplifies the dedication to brain injury rehabilitation that Dr. Kreutzer has embodied during his illustrious career.

 

Dr. Jeffrey Kreutzer Biography

ABPP board certified in rehabilitation psychology, Jeffrey S. Kreutzer, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Career Professor in the School of Medicine (SOM) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He first joined VCU’s faculty in 1983 after completing his postdoctoral fellow at VCU and internship with Muriel Lezak at the Portland, Oregon VA Medical Center. He retired as a full-time VCU faculty member in December 2020 after more than three decades experience as a brain injury rehabilitation specialist.  As a clinician, Dr. Kreutzer provided neuropsychological and family support services to persons with a wide variety of neurological disabilities, specializing in traumatic brain injury.  His practice was holistic, emphasizing skills training, psychological support, and education.

Dr. Kreutzer was a founding member of the Virginia Head Injury Foundation (1983), now known as Brain Injury Association of Virginia.  Since 1987, he has served as the Director of VCU’s federally designated Traumatic Brain Injury Model System (TBIMS). One of 16 federally-funded, highly prestigious clinical and research centers, VCU is home to the nation’s longest running TBIMS.

Throughout his career, Dr. Kreutzer dedicated his efforts to developing practical and effective interventions for persons with brain injury and their family members.  In 1986, he and Dr. Paul Wehman received a major federal grant to adapt supported employment methods for persons with brain injury.  Their successful program helped make supported employment the current “standard of care” for TBI employment services.  More recently, in collaboration with his VCU colleagues, Dr. Kreutzer developed three empirically-based programs to enhance resilience for individuals, couples, and families after TBI.

For several decades, Dr. Kreutzer has played a major role in training postdoctoral fellows. In 1987, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) developed the Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training Program (ARRT). The five-year program provides funding for clinicians who wish to develop their rehabilitation research skills. Dr. Kreutzer oversaw the VCU program for 25 years. Since the program’s inception, VCU has graduated more than 30 fellows with many going on to successful rehabilitation research careers.

A Fellow in the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (FACRM), the National Academy of Neuropsychology, and the American Psychological Association, Dr. Kreutzer has co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, most in the area of TBI and rehabilitation.  His publications include in prestigious journals such as the Journal of Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, and Rehabilitation Psychology. Editor-In-Chief of two international journals, Brain Injury and NeuroRehabilitation, he has also published more than 15 books covering topics such as vocational rehabilitation, behavior management, and cognitive rehabilitation. He has also given more than 500 invited national and international presentations, including in England, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, Scotland, Sweden, and Italy.  Perhaps his most prominent publication is the Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology published by Springer in 2011 and 2018, composing five volumes spanning nearly 4,000 pages, with more than 900 contributing authors contributed.

Dr. Kreutzer has received numerous awards for his research and clinical care.  In 1994, he received the Sheldon Berrol Clinical Service Award from The National Head Injury Foundation.  In 2002, he received the Robert L. Moody Prize for Distinguished Initiatives in Brain Injury Research and Rehabilitation from the University of Texas.  He has received two awards from the American Psychological Association, the Roger Barker Distinguished Research Contribution Award (2003) and the Diller Award for Demonstrated Excellence in the Field of Neurorehabilitation (2005).  In 2010, he received the Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Neuropsychology Award from the National Academy of Neuropsychology. In 2012, he received the McCollom Research Award from the Foundation for Life Care Planning Research, and in 2013 he received the Innovations in Treatment Award from the North American Brain Injury Society. Most recently in 2017, he was presented with the Jennett Plum Award for Clinical Achievement in the Field of Brain Injury Medicine by the International Brain Injury Association.