Stolov steps down after 12 years as Rehabilitation Medicine department chair

Dr. Walter C. Stolov, professor of rehabilitation medicine, will step down as chair of the School of Medicine’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine June 30. During his 12 years in the post, the department achieved, and has sustained for the past five years, top ranking in NIH research grant awards for university rehabilitation departments. U.S. News & World Report has consistently listed the department’s clinical program among the top five in rehabilitation care (No. 2 in 1998), and best in the West.

During Stolov’s administration, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) awarded the department Model Systems Grants in traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and burn rehabilitation (with the Division of Plastic Surgery), as well as a Research and Training Center Grant in multiple sclerosis.

Under Stolov’s leadership, the rehabilitation programs at UW Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center were coordinated to operate as two parts of a whole for greater efficiency. The Commission for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities accredited the programs as a single unit.

Dr. Marjorie Anderson, professor and vice chair of rehabilitation medicine and professor of physiology and biophysics, will serve as acting chair. Dr. George Kraft, professor of rehabilitation medicine, will serve as acting director of clinical services at UW Medical Center. ¶