Martha Bridge Denckla, M.D.

Dr. Denckla graduated summa cum laude from Bryn Mawr College and went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard Medical School, after which she trained with Dr. Norman Geschwind in Behavioral Neurology. Dr. Denckla completed residency training at the Beth Israel Hospital and Veterans Administration Hospital, both in Boston, and Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC.

After positions in the Department of Neurology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and Harvard Medical School, she served as the Director of the Learning Disabilities Clinic at the Children’s Hospital. She moved to the Maryland area in 1982, and served as Chief of the section on Autism and Related Disorders at the Developmental Neurology branch of the Neurological Disorders Program at the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke (NIH). She started at the Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University in 1987, where she served as Director of the Developmental Cognitive Neurology Clinic, and held the Batza Family Endowed Chair until 2017. The Krieger Institute is a world-renowned center dedicated to improving the lives of children and adolescents with pediatric developmental disabilities. She is currently Emeritus Professor of Neurology in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Denckla is an internationally known researcher and clinician in the area of developmental cognitive neurology. Her recent research studies have examined reading disabilities present in children grades 3-8, including classification, identification, treatment, prevalence, neurocognitive characteristics, as well as the influence of comorbidities (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; ADHD) on reading.

Dr. Denckla is a past president of the International Neuropsychology Society, and the Behavioral Neurology Society. Dr. Denckla has been awarded the Lucy G. Moses Prize in Clinical Neurology at Columbia University, the Norman Geschwind Memorial Lectureship at Orton Society, the Rita G. Rudel Memorial Lectureship at Columbia University, the Herbert Birch Memorial Lectureship at the International Neuropsychology Society, the Soriano Guest Lectureship of the American Neurological Association and the Bernard Sachs Lectureship of Child Neurological Society. She was the American Academy of Mental Retardation Research Center awardee. In 2013 she won the career award given on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Learning Disabilities Association (LDA).