2024 Steel Conference

Randal R. Betz, MD
Pediatric Scoliosis and Spine Surgeon

Randal R. Betz, MD is currently a pediatric spine surgeon with the Institute for Spine & Scoliosis in Princeton and New Brunswick, NJ. Previously Shriners Hospitals for Children, Philadelphia, he previously was on staff since 1983 and served as the Chief of Staff from 2000-2012 and was the Medical Director of the spinal cord injury program from 1983 to 2014. He is board-certified in both orthopaedic surgery and spinal cord injury medicine.

Dr. Betz became A member of the SRS in 1986, was Education committee chair and started IMAST in 1994. He proposed the initiation of the SRS traveling fellowship in 1990 and had the opportunity to be the senior mentor for the Scoliosis Research Society Traveling Fellows in 2013. He served as president of the Scoliosis Research Society in 2005.

He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Scoliosis Research Society, and the American Spinal Injury Association. Dr. Betz also received the A. Estin Comarr Memorial Award for Clinical Service from the American Paraplegia Society in 2003.

Dr. Betz has co-edited 20 textbooks in pediatric spinal cord injury and pediatric spine deformity and has contributed to or edited chapters in 55 textbooks, has been senior author or coauthor on over 350 peer-reviewed journal articles, with coinvestigators has received over $16.5M in institutional grant monies, and is named on 18 patents either personally or from industry research spanning the past 20 years.

Nicholas Theodore, MD, FACS, FAANS
Professor of Neurosurgery, Orthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Nicholas Theodore, MD, has been named the 2024 Howard H. Streel Stephen M. Haley Memorial Lecturer. Dr. Stephen Haley was an esteemed colleague who transformed how we assess outcomes of physical function, activity, and participation in children with physical disabilities, including spinal cord injury. He died far too early due to complications from leukemia.

Nicholas Theodore, MD, is the Donlin M. Long Professor and Professor of Neurosurgery, Orthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Neurological Spine Program, Co-Director of the Carnegie Center for Surgical Innovation, and Director of the Complex Spine Fellowship. Dr. Theodore graduated from Cornell University and received a Cornell Tradition Academic Fellowship. He attended medical school at Georgetown University, graduating with honors and inducted into AOA. His areas of interest include brain and spinal cord injury, minimally invasive surgery, robotics, and personalized medicine. He is the author of over 400 scientific publications and the recipient of many research awards, including the Tasker, Mayfield, and NASS Awards. He has received several grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation and a significant award from the Department of Defense for a multi-center study examining the effects of cerebrospinal fluid drainage in acute spinal cord injury.

In 2010, with Neil Crawford, PhD he founded Excelsius Surgical, a surgical robotics company that was sold to Globus Medical in 2013. The technology associated with this venture led to the first real-time image-guided surgical robot for spine surgery. It was the most successful launch of a surgical robot in medical device history. He is active in injury prevention and advocacy. He has been involved with ThinkFirst for many years, serving as the Medical Director and National President of the Board of Directors. In 2018, he was appointed Chairman of the National Football League’s Head Neck and Spine Committee, which advises the league on neuroscience, concussion, and other health and safety issues. In 2020, he received a $13.48M award from DARPA as principal investigator of a multi-center team that has developed cutting-edge implantable imaging and neuromodulation technologies for spinal cord injury.

Jacquelyn Cragg, MPH, PhD
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia

Dr. Jacquelyn Cragg is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She is a Principal Investigator at the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD) and Tier 2 Research Chair in Open Data Science. She stands at the forefront of neuro-epidemiology and data science. She has been internationally recognized for her discoveries in traumatic spinal cord injury. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) Brian MacMahon Early Career Epidemiologist Award, Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada (AFPC) New Investigator Award, CIHR Inclusive Research Excellence Prize, Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar Award, Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences (CSPS) Early Career Award, Canadian Society for Epidemiology & Biostatistics (CSEB) Early Career Award, and the Young Alumni Award from the University of British Columbia. She was the sole North American recipient of the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Rising Talent. Dr. Cragg is the Director of Fostering Science, an outreach program for mentoring foster care youth in science fair projects.

Anjali J. Forber-Pratt, PhD
Director of Research at AAHD, Disability Activist, and two-time Paralympian

Anjali J. Forber-Pratt, Ph.D. is the Director of Research at AAHD, a disability activist, and a two-time Paralympian. Prior to this role, she served as the Director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) in the Administration for Community Living. She holds three degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. As a researcher, her primary area of work relates to disability identity development. She presents regularly at state, national, and international conferences and is author on numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters. As a wheelchair-user for over 40 years, Dr. Forber-Pratt is nationally and internationally recognized as a disability leader and mentor. She was a White House Champion of Change in 2013 and the American Psychological Association awarded her the 2020 Citizen Psychologist Award for Advancing Disability as a Human Rights and Social Justice Issue Award.

Craig M. McDonald, MD, MD, FAAPM&R
University of California Davis Health

Dr. McDonald is Distinguished Professor and Chair of Physical Medicine& Rehabilitation and Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at University of California Davis Health. He is the Director of the Neuromuscular Disease Clinics at UC Davis and Shriners Hospital for Children, Northern California in Sacramento. He previously was Director of the Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury and Spina Bifida programs at Shriners. Dr. McDonald was the first physiatrist to be promoted to the above scale rank of Distinguished Professor in the University of California system. For the past 12 years he has been the only PM&R physician to serve as a site Principal Investigator for the NIH NINDS NeuroNEXT clinical trials consortium. He received his medical degree from the University of Washington and pursued Pediatrics and PM&R training at UCLA and University of Washington respectively. He has been in academic practice for 32 years.