VCU hosts Eighth Annual Spinal Cord Injury Symposium

By Erin Lucero
Office of Development, School of Medicine

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Eighth Annual Spinal Cord Injury Symposium will be held Oct. 29 at the Richmond Centre, 400 E. Marshall St.

The day-long symposium will feature a number of speakers including:

• Dalton Dietrich, Ph.D., scientific director of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and an extensively published researcher who will speak about repairing spinal cord injury;
• VCU’s Paul Wehman, Ph.D., and Wendy Strobel who will address the variety of work supports available to people with physical disabilities; and
• Paul Shelton who will discuss the Disabled Sportsmen’s Act as well as hunting, fishing and enjoying the outdoors as forms of rehabilitative therapy.

The symposium is hosted by VCU’s Rehabilitation and Research Center, which has been ranked among the 20 best rehabilitation programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The Rehabilitation and Research Center is recognized as a Model System of Care for both spinal cord and traumatic brain injury. It is the only facility in Virginia to be accredited for brain injury, spinal cord injury and comprehensive adult rehabilitation by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.

The symposium is designed for those who work in the rehabilitation field as well as individuals who have suffered a spinal cord injury. Conference registration is $120. For more information, call the conference manager at (804) 828-0861.