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Brian G. Skotko

Biography

Brian Skotko, 25, who has a sister with Down syndrome, is dedicated to improving both medical treatment for and public acceptance of children with disabilities. He already has made strides in that direction by writing an award-winning book on how those with Down syndrome can get the most out of life. Mr. Skotko chairs the Disability Task Force for the American Red Cross at its national headquarters. He earned a 3.96 GPA at Duke University and started medical school at Harvard. To sharpen his skills as an advocate, he hopes to take time off during his medical studies to seek a master of public policy degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

One of Brian's mentors said he thinks big, works hard, and achieves in all he does. He aims to be both a physician and a disability rights advocate and already has impressive accomplishments in both medical and policy worlds. For 16 years, he has volunteered for the American Red Cross, and since 1999 has challenged prejudices and stereotypes about the disabled as head of its Disability Task Force. Rather than push his own belief that people with disabilities can bring "richness" to the organization, his task force developed concrete tools to help upgrade their practices: web pages, a disability awareness curriculum, recruitment tools to use in getting volunteers with disabilities, and a best practices tally to share what works.

Mr. Skotko is also breaking new ground by working both the research and real-life aspects of disability issues. And he doesn't hesitate to challenge authority in doing so. He sees human design as "both tenuous and miraculously fragile" and says small differences in our design cause disabilities. He has set out to understand all medical and clinical aspects of disabilities. At Duke, he studied the complex makeup of the tongue and did laboratory research on normal mice and genetically engineered mice models with Down syndrome to map the differing sequential developments of nerves and muscles. His aim was to shed light on how tongue-development complications slow the speech of children with Down syndrome. For seven years, he also studied young children with Rett syndrome, which usually means loss of language and hand use by the second year, and developed a storybook reading model that indicated that young girls with Rett syndrome could, in fact, learn to communicate.

After getting a master's in public policy, Mr. Skotko plans to do a residency in pediatrics, get a fellowship in developmental and behavioral pediatrics, and then run a clinical program for children with disabilities. He also envisions specialty clinics for conditions such as Down syndrome or cerebral palsy where he would coordinate medical services. Longer term, however, he wants "to be an active policy maker for people with disabilities." He adds, "By being a doctor for kids with disabilities, I will be armored with their frustrations and life experiences. By being a policymaker, I want to translate these concerns into meaningful changes."

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