Identity Theft: Rediscovering Ourselves After Stroke
Identity Theft centers on Debra’s experience: her stroke in 2010, her extraordinary efforts to recover, and the journey to redefine herself. But the book also draws on her skills as a social scientist, sharing stories from several dozen fellow survivors, family members, friends, colleagues, therapists, and doctors she met and interviewed. By sharing this diversity of experiences, the authors highlight how every stroke is different and every recovery is different. They provide a valuable look at the broad possibilities for successfully navigating the challenging physical recovery, and the equally difficult and frequently unspoken emotional journey toward rebuilding one’s identity and a rewarding life after a trauma like a stroke.
Debra and her husband, Steve Zuckerman co-founded the nonprofit Stroke Onward to build on the impact of the book’s first edition—an organization working to catalyze change in the healthcare system to better integrate the emotional journey of rebuilding identity into a lifelong recovery process. This second edition draws on five more years of experience as a post-stroke couple and what Debra and Steve have learned from thousands more survivors, family members, and healthcare professionals. They’ve added new insights about the long-term recovery process and how we can change the stroke system of care to better support all survivors and their families.
About the Author:
Debra Meyerson is an author, advocate, and a professor at Stanford University Graduate School of Education. Following her severe stroke in 2010, Debra wrote Identity Theft: Rediscovering Ourselves after Stroke (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2019); second edition 2025). Writing Identity Theft began as a critical part of her personal journey to rebuild her own life outside mainstream academia. It became the foundation for maintaining meaning and purpose in her life despite her ongoing disabilities – helping other stroke survivors and those closest to them rebuild their identities after a trauma like stroke, and navigate the critical and often overlooked emotional journey in recovery. With her husband, Steve Zuckerman, she co-founded Stroke Onward to expand and accelerate that work. In addition to her role on the board, Debra’s significant volunteer commitment to Stroke Onward focuses on speaking engagements, deepening the content built into their work, and supporting related research projects.
