Joel Goldstein

By tragic necessity Joel Goldstein became a lay authority in traumatic brain injury (TBI) after his teenage son Bart suffered severe TBI in an auto accident in 2001. His critically acclaimed book, No Stone Unturned: A Father’s Memoir of His Son’s Encounter with Traumatic Brain Injury, (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2012), with a foreword by Lee Woodruff, is a standard reference work found in university libraries worldwide. Joel has written about acquired brain injury (ABI) for Brainline.org., Exceptional Parent Magazine, Adoption Today, Caregiver Space, and Rehab & Community Care Medicine and Korean American Story. He has spoken on NPR, public television and to audiences ranging from Medical Societies and Brain Injury Associations to the NYS Assembly.

An adoption advocate and activist, he served for years on the international adoption board of Albany’s Parsons Child & Family Center and of Camp Mujigae, the largest Korean heritage camp in the country, where he did a stint as Camp Director. Founding President of the Southern Ulster Branch YMCA, Joel served on its board as well as the board of The YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County. Educated in NYC public schools, he earned a BA at Brooklyn College and MA at the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Research of The New School, going on to teach philosophy and logic for a couple of years at Mercy College, Westchester, New York. He went on to a distinguished career in transportation and logistics. Formerly an avid mountain climber and martial artist, nowadays Joel prefers hiking, writing and travel.

In 2016, along with several distinguished physicians and others, Goldstein formed the Brain Alternative Rehabilitation Therapies Foundation (BART Foundation), a 501(c)(3) public charity, to explore and promote use of safe alternative therapies for brain injuries.