Inspired by Gratitude

Victor Su ’95 never imagined that a life-altering health challenge would bring him back to his alma mater. After earning degrees in chemical and industrial engineering at Northwestern, he spent 20 years in consulting and finance, ultimately working around the world — from New York City to Japan to the United Kingdom — as a managing director of Credit Suisse.  

Nine years ago, while putting in long hours at his job in London, the then 42-year-old Su suffered an aortic dissection followed by three strokes. The National Health Service doctors who treated him didn’t expect him to survive. But after returning to New York City via an air ambulance, Su defied the odds. He gradually emerged from a coma. He underwent five months of inpatient therapy and learned to walk again. He also struggled with right-side paralysis, memory loss and aphasia — a communication disorder that often occurs suddenly following a stroke or head trauma and can affect one’s ability to talk, read, write and/or understand spoken language. 

After Su was discharged from a rehabilitation hospital, his wife, Patricia “Trish” Kou, knew he would need more therapy to keep improving. Searching online, she found an intensive, one-month program for aphasia patients at the Northwestern University Center for Audiology, Speech, Language and Learning. In summer 2017 Kou and the couple’s two young children accompanied Su to Evanston, where he worked five to six hours a day with speech and language clinicians. 

“It was a lifesaver for Vic,” Kou says. Su regained his ability to communicate at the center and continued to progress at home through online sessions with his Northwestern therapy team. 

In gratitude for Su’s treatment, the family this year made a generous gift to establish the Su Family Community Impact Fund, which will help the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) at Northwestern’s School of Communication (SoC) expand diagnostic and treatment services to underserved children and adults throughout the Chicago area. 

“One of our top priorities is to provide high-quality clinical services, not just to those who come to our clinic but to everybody in the community who may have trouble accessing them,” says Bharath Chandrasekaran, CSD chair and the Ralph and Jean Sundin Endowed Professor. The gift from the Su family also will support innovative, interdisciplinary research partnerships within SoC.

The Su family’s gift — which also establishes a scholarship fund to support undergraduate students in the McCormick School of Engineering — has the potential to make a broad impact. The couple say they hope their philanthropy will increase access both to a Northwestern education and to treatment for aphasia and other disorders for those who lack resources to pay.

“The treatment I received at Northwestern made a huge difference in my recovery,” Su says. “I am forever grateful.”