An Extraordinary Epilepsy Doctor and Researcher

The Epilepsy Therapy Project (ETP) memorializes an extraordinary epilepsy expert, physician, and friend whose work has advanced our understanding of the benefits of epilepsy surgery as well as the localization of seizure onset.

You may think of Spencer and Spencer, the indomitable team of Susan and Dennis, who have been leaders in epilepsy surgery. We lost Susan suddenly and tragically in May 2009; an incalculable loss not only to Dennis and her family, but to the Yale Epilepsy Program that she directed. Susan received her baccalaureate and medical degrees at the University of Rochester, interned at Dartmouth, then spent the remainder of her career at Yale: residency, fellowship, and faculty advancement to Professor of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Director of the Epilepsy Program. She cared for hundreds of patients, many for decades, through their ups and downs. Simultaneously, she conducted research on epilepsy surgery with correlations among pathology, imaging, and other localizing studies. A keynote was her successful leadership of a long-term, multi-center study of surgical outcomes that provided seminal information on seizures, quality of life, and health economic effects of surgery.

Susan also worked tirelessly for the American Epilepsy Society (including the presidency and editorship of Epilepsy Currents) as well as the American Neurological Association and American Academy of Neurology (serving on both executive committees). Her curriculum vitae includes pages of invited lectureships around the world, as well as pages of publications. She was a true academic researcher, to the point of influencing both her daughters to become physicians (although not neurologists or surgeons).

Gilbert Glaser, then Chairman of Neurology, fostered her interest in surgical treatment with examples of his early experiences at Oxford. She was exposed to the busy epilepsy monitoring unit at the VA Hospital, directed by Dick Mattson and Peter Williamson, (her death follows not long after Peter’s death) who taught her about intracranial monitoring when she was a Yale resident. She and Dennis became a team when both decided to focus on this subspecialty, as well as on each other.

Susan reached the highest levels of an academic career, including the highly prestigious American Epilepsy Society Clinical Research Award, while continuing to care for large numbers patients with the most difficult-to-manage epilepsy. She also shared her knowledge with many residents and fellows who learned the intricacies of epilepsy monitoring and surgical selection.

We memorialize Susan because she devoted her professional life to understanding localization of the epileptogenic focus and epilepsy treatment in order to help people with epilepsy. She will be missed by her patients, colleagues, friends, and family.

Use our online form below or the downloadable donation form to mail your contribution to memorialize Susan Spencer.

• To view appreciations from other members, click here.
• To just leave a note of appreciation, please email webmaster@epilepsytherapyproject.org with your message.
• Epilepsy Therapy Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to advance new therapies for people living with epilepsy. Our goal is stopping seizures and side effects!

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In Appreciation of Susan Spencer, M.D.
Donations in memory of Dr. Spencer will be used to support research. This is an opportunity for patients, colleagues and friends to express their appreciation and respect while putting those feelings to good use. Her family will read your notes and see the list of donors grow, knowing that your donation will help continue her work for people with epilepsy.
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