Program Center
a few words about us
Kessler Foundation bears the name of Dr. Henry H. Kessler, an orthopedist who founded Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in 1948 to provide comprehensive rehabilitation for people with physical disabilities and help them achieve maximum independence. Today, the rehabilitation research and community employment programs of Kessler Foundation continue Dr. Kessler’s legacy.
Kessler Foundation maintains its charitable mission; Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, the largest and most comprehensive hospital for medical rehabilitation in New Jersey, now operates as a for-profit institution.
Kessler Foundation strives to improve the lives of people with physical disabilities caused by stroke, multiple sclerosis, brain and spinal cord injury, and other chronic neurologic and musculoskeletal conditions. Over the past decade, Kessler Foundation has invested almost $50 million in the work of its Research Center, where investigators develop ways to help people with disabilities overcome obstacles to leading full and productive lives in our communities.
Kessler Foundation maintains two locations in West Orange, New Jersey. The Research Center, which adjoins Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, houses the support staff, a medical library, and meeting rooms in addition to six of the seven specialized laboratories:
- Human Performance and Engineering Laboratory
- Outcomes & Assessments
- Rehabilitation Engineering Analysis Laboratory
- Spinal Cord Injury Research Laboratory
- Stroke Rehabilitation Research Laboratory
- Traumatic Brain Injury Research
- Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Laboratory
Located at the Executive Drive facility is the seventh lab:
which also houses the Foundation’s Program Center and administrative offices.