Dr. Karen Surowiec is a New York (#022086) and New Jersey (#5822) State Licensed psychologist who earned her doctorate from the APA accredited Nathan Weiss Graduate College in NJ. She also earned a Masters in School Psychology at Nathan Weiss, and a Masters in Communication and Bachelors in Fine Art from Rutgers University.
Dr. Surowiec joined MPG in 2021, and created and helped develop the testing department that has now grown into a multifaceted team of neuropsychologists, trainees, and support staff. Previous to MPG, Dr. Surowiec was the supervisor of the psychology department in multiple NJ locations of the Children Specialized Hospital. There, she managed interdisciplinary testing teams to evaluate children with complex medical and developmental disabilities including cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, autism, ADHD, learning disorder, intellectual disability, and a variety of genetic disorders including fragile X syndrome, spina bifida, and down syndrome.
Concurrently, Dr. Surowiec is a staff neuropsychologist at the University Hospital in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Department at Rutgers NJ Medical School. Dr. Surowiec provides grant funded developmental evaluations for underserved children and families with HIV complications. She has authored multiple—and supported hundreds of—peer-reviewed research articles exploring the effects of antiretroviral drugs and HIV on pregnant women, infants, and children.
Dr. Surowiec offers compassionate and nurturing support for children, adolescents, and adults, delivering comprehensive, culturally sensitive, evidence-based neuropsychological testing. Colleagues often refer to her as the “diagnostic detective” for her ability to identify complex symptom profiles that have eluded other professionals, as well as for uncovering numerous cases of prior misdiagnosis. Dr. Surowiec brings extensive experience in the New York and New Jersey court systems, including the Supreme Court, where she provides specialized evaluations for special education, OPWDD (Office for Persons with Developmental Disabilities), immigration cases (such as extreme hardship, trauma, extortion, and asylum), and assessments for military and law enforcement personnel.
Dr. Surowiec’s training includes externships at NJ Public Schools, Einstein College of Medicine Infant-Parent Court Project in the Bronx, and St. Barnabas Emergency Psychiatric Department in the Bronx. She completed her internship at Albert Einstein-Montefiore Medical Center in the Infant-Parent Court Project (IPCP) where she concentrated on Infant-Parent Psychotherapy (IPP). IPP centers on strengthening child-parent attachment, enhancing emotional attunement, supporting behavior modification, and facilitating family reunification in cases referred by the court for neglect and abuse. During her time at IPCP, she helped to train Child Protection Services (CPS) staff on Child Brain Development, Emotional Attunement, and Toxic Stress.
Dr. Surowiec completed her post-doc at Mt. Sinai-Icahn School of Medicine where she worked in the Child and Family Institute. During her time at Mt. Sinai, she also worked at the Therapeutic Day School center, which focused on specialized support for children with behavioral difficulties and developmental delays. She received training for ADOS Autism testing from the Seaver Autism Center for Research at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai and from Rutgers University GSAPP (Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology).
Dr. Surowiec has extensive experience supporting the LGBTQ community and consults with other professionals and organizations regarding sexual identity, gender identity and expression, coming out, managing internalized homophobia, and transgender topics. Dr. Surowiec is also a certified Grief Counselor, licensed in multiple states, and practices telepsychology under the authority of Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (PSYPACT). In her spare time, Dr. Surowiec enjoys kayaking, long-distance cycling, hiking, and volunteer travel. She is more than happy to provide a free consultation.
