Dr. Melissa Svoboda

Dr. Melissa Svoboda is an Endowed Chair and Division Chief of Pediatric Neurology/Neurodevelopment at Baylor College of Medicine/CHRISTUS Children’s in San Antonio, Texas. She specializes in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and is the Director of the Comprehensive Autism Program and the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Program.

In 2014, she co-founded the Comprehensive Autism Program at CHRISTUS Children’s alongside Dr. Andrew Martinez of neuropsychology. This has evolved to become the preeminent autism clinic in the city, providing high-quality multidisciplinary evaluations and comprehensive medication management. She also co-founded the SAABA Consortium (San Antonio Applied Behavioral Analysis) with Dr. Leslie Neely, BCBA-D -a pioneering collaboration between her hospital, UT San Antonio, and the Autism Treatment Center. This partnership offers essential behavioral treatment to children with autism, with a focus on severe aberrant behaviors, while actively contributing to ongoing research in the field. Her latest initiative is using an internationally-known program, called ECHO Autism, to teach local primary care physicians about diagnosing and treating children with autism to improve care for all children in San Antonio and South Texas. She is also actively involved in research projects around autism and Spinal Muscular Atrophy as well as teaching, and has won numerous teaching awards.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Jonathan, their 4 daughters and 3 poodle-mix dogs. She loves reading books, golf, horseback riding, and organizing in her free time.