After graduation from New Milford High School in 1987 as the class Valedictorian, Susan Bukata went on to Harvard University where she graduated with honors with a degree in Biology and 8 varsity letters for managing the Men’s and Women’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams. Her junior tutorial project researching myosin began an interest in musculoskeletal research that continues to be an important part of her work today. She received her MD from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeon where she served as the President of the medical school student community activities organization, and received the University’s Bronze Medal at graduation recognizing outstanding contributions to the medical school community.

From there Susan went on to a clinician scientist track residency in Orthopaedic Surgery and Orthopaedic Research at the University of Rochester where she began work on a variety of skeletal diseases including osteoporosis, fracture healing problems, and cancer. She completed a fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Cornell Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City to specialize in musculoskeletal cancer care and care of bone fragility diseases.

She returned to the faculty of the University of Rochester in 2004 as a clinician scientist. She has an active practice caring for patients with cancer that has begun in or spread to their skeleton or muscles, and as a specialist in diseases that cause fragile bones. She is the clinical director of the Center for Bone Health at the University of Rochester and also cares for patients with severe osteoporosis, and children with genetic diseases that make their bones fragile. She continues to do research on the biology of osteoblast contributions to bone strength and fracture healing and recently received a $1million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to run a clinical trial for a medication that helps to stimulate fracture healing. She has been interviewed by NBC news, the Today Show, ABC news, and USA today about current advances in osteoporosis and fracture healing care, and lectures regularly around the country on these topics. She has authored several primary research articles and book chapters in the field.

Susan married her attorney husband, Louis Maslow, in 2004, and they have a two year old daughter Sydney and a son due in mid July. They live in Rochester, NY, and enjoy traveling throughout the United States and world, most recently to Southern Africa, New Zealand, and China.