Susan A. Slaugenhaupt, PhD is a Professor of Neurology (Genetics) at Mass General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, the Scientific Director of the Mass General Research Institute and an Investigator in the Center for Genomic Medicine at Mass General. She is a human geneticist whose work focuses on two neurologic disorders, familial dysautonomia (FD) and mucolipidosis type IV (MLIV), as well as the common cardiac disorder mitral valve prolapse (MVP). Discoveries in the Slaugenhaupt Lab have led to the successful implementation of critical population screening for FD and MLIV, the identification of genes for familial MVP, and more recently to the development of therapeutics for FD and MLIV. Dr. Slaugenhaupt also spearheads several programs and educational initiatives at Mass General, including a thriving undergraduate summer internship program. Her Research Institute team works to promote science at Mass General by increasing interactions with industry, by fundraising for Research Institute initiatives, and by promoting Mass General research to both internal and external audiences. In 2013, Dr. Slaugenhaupt was named the Elizabeth G. Riley and Daniel E. Smith, Jr. MGH Research Scholar. In 2016, she was honored with a prestigious Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and in 2016 she was named one of the Top Ten Women to Watch in Science and Technology by the Boston Business Journal. She was elected to the Board of the American Society of Human Genetics in 2018 and she serves on the Board of Trustees at Eckerd College. She was recently named the Elizabeth G. Riley and Daniel E. Smith Jr. Endowed MGH Research Institute Chair.