Ross Zafonte, DO

Dr. Ross D. Zafonte is the President of Spaulding Rehabilitation and the Earle P. and Ida S. Charlton Professor and Chairman of the Harvard Medical School Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R). He also serves as Chief of the Department of PM&R Massachusetts General Hospital, Chair of the Department of PM&R at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs, Research and Education at Spaulding Rehabilitatio. Dr. Zafonte’s textbook, Brain Injury Medicine, is considered one of the standards in the field of brain injury care. His work is presently funded by the NIH, DOD and NIDRR, and he is currently directing several large clinical treatment trials. His research primarily focuses on understanding mechanisms of recovery after Brain and Spinal Cord Injury. At the RedSox MGH HomeBase program, he directs the Brain Injury and the Warrior Health and Fitness programs and at the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, he is the Principal Investigator.  Dr. Zafonte also sees patients in numerous clinics and hospitals in the Boston community including former NFL athletes as part of a special MGH initiative known as the Brain and Body Program.

Dr. Zafonte has published extensively on traumatic brain injuries, spasticity, and other neurological disorders, as well as presented on these topics at conferences nationally and internationally. He is the author of more than 300 peer review journal articles, abstracts and book chapters. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Neurotrauma and, in 2020, was named the Editor in Chief for the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.  His most recent awards include the Innovative Clinical Treatment Award presented by the North American Brain Injury Society, the 2020 Distinguished Member Award from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a Public Service Medal from the Unites Stated Department of the Army for his work with military veterans. 

Through all of Dr. Zafonte’s endeavors - research, academic, clinical and administrative - he has sought to improve the lives of persons with traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and other catastrophic illness.