Cristin Zeisler (Dr. Z)

After practicing law for over a dozen years (and building a nationally recognized and award-winning pro bono program along the way), Cristin suffered a catastrophic brain injury in 2011. Her medical team doubted she would survive her emergency craniotomy. After she managed to live, they “hoped” to get her back to a level of function that would allow her to work as a grocery store clerk. 

Not inspired by that vision for her future, she embarked upon creating her own therapeutic protocols, with considerable help from Coach Ron. The carefully calibrated cycling and sensory integration program that they developed not only enabled her to return to her law practice, it ultimately inspired her to act far more boldly -- to dive headlong (pun intended) into the professional world of neurorehabilitation research and therapy!

Cristin pursued specialty training at the Motor Behavior and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory, the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center (spinal cord and TBI unit), the Centre for Neuro Skills, and at a Federally Qualified Health Center where she developed a first-of-its kind functional vision screening program. In 2018, she completed her doctoral residency at USC’s Brain & Creativity Institute in partnership with the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. 

In addition to being a Doctor of Occupational Therapy, Cristin has received specialty certifications in assessment of motor and process skills, preventing dementia, and treating concussions. She is currently undertaking post-doctoral fellowship work with the Neuro Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA) relating to the dynamic treatment of post-TBI visual perceptual disruptions. 

Dr. Z does this work because she “gets it” -- from all angles. She also does this because she cannot think of a better thing to do than building better brains. When she’s not doing this, she prefers to travel to foreign lands (35 countries and counting!) but she’ll settle for hanging out with her dog, Zolie, or her trivia team, JC’s Bacon Dream. They aren’t very good, but they have a lot of fun.