Dr. Susan E. Mackinnon is currently the director of the Center for Nerve Injury and Paralysis at Washington University. She earned her medical degree from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in 1975 and completed a plastic surgery residency at the University of Toronto in 1980. She went on to complete fellowships in neurosurgical research at the University of Toronto and Hand Surgery at the Raymond Curtis Hand Center in Baltimore before returning to the University of Toronto, taking a staff position at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre for almost a decade. Dr. Mackinnon has been a phenomenal contributor to the fabric of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery with leadership positions as President of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons, the Plastic Surgery Research Council and the American Association of Hand Surgery. In 2013, she was awarded the Jacobson Innovation Award by the American College of Surgeons. Her areas of clinical interest in peripheral nerve surgery include hand, upper extremity and lower extremity injury; carpal tunnel syndrome; tarsal tunnel syndrome; thoracic outlet syndrome; brachial plexus injury; cumulative trauma disorder; nerve compression; facial palsy; and hand and upper extremity disorders and injuries.