Stroke Onward Website and Stroke Onward Community Circle
Stroke Onward was founded by Debra Meyerson and Steve Zuckerman, stroke survivor and carepartner respectively. They personally experienced, and confirmed through countless interviews and conversations, the critical importance of the emotional journey in stroke recovery and the lack of resources to support it.
Stroke Onward is working to help create a stroke system of care that focuses on the whole person — one where survivors and families get as much support for their rebuilding identities and rewarding lives as they do for their physical health and rehabilitation.
The Stroke Onward website and the Stroke Onward Community Circle provides resources, education, insights and hope both for and from stroke survivors.
About the Creator:
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.
