Karin M. Muraszko was born on June 19, 1955 in Jersey City, New Jersey. She was educated at Yale University, having received a B.S. with a double major in history and biology in 1977. She graduated from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1981. She did her internship, neurosurgical training, and pediatric neurosurgical training at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center-the New York Neurological Institute. She completed her training in 1988. Dr. Muraszko was then a Senior Staff Fellow at the National Institutes of Health-NINDS in the Surgical Neurology Branch from 1988 to 1990.

Dr. Muraszko arrived at the University of Michigan in January of 1990. She became Chief of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Service in 1995, and became Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery in January of 2005. She has served on numerous committees within the CNS, AANS, ACS, the Pediatric Section of the AANS, and the American Society of Pediatric Neurosurgery.

Dr. Muraszko’s research interests include experimental therapies for the treatment of pediatric brain tumors, the treatment and diagnosis of Chiari malformations and other congenital anomalies of the spine and brain, and the treatment of children with complex craniofacial anomalies. She is director of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and has worked to develop new therapies for brain tumors. She is the co-founder of Project Shunt at the University of Michigan. This is a program which provides care to indigent children in Guatemala and has been an ongoing yearly medical mission of neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists, neurosurgical residents, and nursing staff from the University of Michigan, under her direction, since 1998. The program has provided care to over 300 Guatemalan children. She is on the Physician’s Advisory Committee of the Spina Bifida Association as well as the March of Dimes. She is a Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery with joint appointments in Plastic Surgery and Pediatrics, and is the first woman to chair an academic neurosurgical department in the United States. Dr. Muraszko is also honored to be the first woman appointed as a Director of the American Board of Neurological Surgeons. She is the author of over 139 peer reviewed publications and chapters, and is the editor of several books.

Karin is married to Scott Van Sweringen and they have two wonderful children, Paxton and Alexandria. Karin and Scott enjoy traveling, fishing, and architectural conservation.