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Meet Aria University School of Medicine - Founding Dean
Dr. Robert M. Suskind, MD
Dr. Suskind who has been an internationally recognized leader in Pediatric Nutrition, Pediatrics, and Medical Administration for over 50 years has been appointed as Founding Dean and Vice President of Health Sciences at Aria University of Science and Medicine, Milpitas, California. He has been a Chair of Pediatrics for more than 20 years and a dean of five U.S. allopathic medical schools for more than 15 years.
Before becoming a dean, Dr. Suskind served as the Chair of Pediatrics at the University of South Alabama from 1978 to 1983 and as the Chair of Pediatrics at Louisiana State University in New Orleans, from 1984 to 1998, during which time the Department of Pediatrics grew from fifteen to eighty full-time faculty. Dr. Suskind was pivotal in transforming the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans from a 40-bed rehab hospital into a 225 bed, nationally recognized children’s hospital. His role as a builder continued in El Paso, Texas where, in addition to being the Founding Dean of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, he was instrumental in founding the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital of El Paso.
Dr. Suskind was the Founding Dean of four of the five medical schools at which he was dean. These include being Dean of the Chicago Medical School and Founding Dean of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine (PLFSOM), California North State, California University of Science and Medicine and Aria University of Science and Medicine in San Jose/Stockton, California.
In his role as Founding Dean, he introduced, in the United States, an entirely new model of medical education, the Clinical Presentation Curriculum (CPC) which was originally created in Calgary, Canada. CPC is a fully integrated basic and clinical science curriculum, with the same learning objectives as a discipline-based basic science curriculum. CPC focus is on the clinical presentations of each organ system in both children and adults. As a result of Dr. Suskind’s leadership, three of the four medical schools have become successful models of innovative medical education, with clinical medicine being fully integrated into the curriculum from the first day of medical school. The fourth medical school at Aria University of Science and Medicine in San Jose/Stockton. California will be going through its accreditation process from 2025-2027.
Following his pediatric residency at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Suskind was recruited to become the Field Director of the Anemia and Malnutrition Research Center (MALAN) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which at the time was one of the largest NIH overseas projects. He was one of the first to recognize the full impact of malnutrition on the growing child. The Malnourished Child, edited in 1990 by Dr. Suskind, described the anatomical, physiological, and functional changes that occur in every organ system in the child because of protein-calorie malnutrition.
At Boston Children’s Hospital and MIT, after his return from Thailand, Dr. Suskind described the impact of disease on the development of secondary malnutrition resulting in the publication of The Textbook of Pediatric Nutrition, Raven Press, Editions I and II. While in Boston, he began an in-depth study of childhood obesity. Dr. Suskind was the first to undertake metabolic and field studies to determine the impact of a high-protein, low-calorie diet (PSMF) on weight loss and the body composition of obese children.
Dr. Suskind has more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, more than 230 abstracts, and has edited seven textbooks in the field of pediatric nutrition. For his contributions to the field of pediatric nutrition, Dr. Suskind will be receiving the Living Legend in Nutrition Award at the International Nutrition Congress in Paris in August 2025.
As a Chair of Pediatrics, Dr. Suskind was able to recruit very strong academic faculty. Eight of the faculty he recruited, supported, and mentored, have gone on to become Chairs of Pediatrics.
With his contribution to the study and treatment of primary and secondary childhood protein-calorie malnutrition and childhood obesity, with his contribution to the development of two major Children’s Hospitals, 4 medical schools, with the establishment of the Clinical Presentation Curriculum and Global Active Learning as an accredited medical curriculum in the U.S, Dr. Suskind will leave a legacy in pediatrics and in medical education that will positively impact the training of physicians and the care of children in the U.S., and internationally, for generations to come.