Kennedy Krieger Institute receives $100K in memory of former chief medical officer

Baltimore-based Kennedy Krieger Institute received $100,000 in memory of Dr. Michael V. Johnston, former chief medical officer and pediatric neurologist who played a pivotal role in shaping the clinical and scientific mission of the Institute.

Dr. Michael V. Johnston

On Jan. 30, on what would have been Johnston’s 77th birthday, his wife Sally Johnston presented the Institute with a check for $100,000 to support the Michael V. Johnston Center for Developmental Neuroscience. The gift will help advance the work that Johnston started and has been continued by other scientists at the Institute.

Johnston died in July 2022.

A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and the University of Pittsburgh, Johnston held clinical and research appointments at the University of Michigan before he came to the Institute in 1988 to help medical and research efforts. During his time at Kennedy Krieger, he trained thousands of pediatric neurologists and neurodevelopmental pediatricians. He was a role model for integrating research and clinical medicine, thus driving forward the knowledge necessary to developing new therapies and treatments and effectively changing the landscape of pediatric brain research. His work provided critical insights on, and led to new discoveries related to, Rett syndrome, traumatic brain injury, excitotoxicity and anoxic brain injury, to name but a few.