Paul D. Sponseller, M.D. obtained his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Michigan. He completed his Orthopaedic residency at the University of Wisconsin and a Pediatric Orthopaedics fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, finishing in 1986. In 2004, he earned an MBA at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Sponseller joined the Johns Hopkins Hospital staff in 1986 and is currently the Division Head of Pediatric Orthopaedics. Dr. Sponseller performs non-surgical and surgical treatment of pediatric skeletal problems. His research interests include pediatric deformity etiology and treatment. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has written and contributed to over 85 books and articles. He is a member of numerous clinical study groups, including the Harms Study Group, Pediatric Spine Study Group, Cervical Spine Study Group, and Fox Study Group. 

Honored several times for teaching and research, Dr. Sponseller was named Outstanding Teacher by the Union Memorial Orthopaedic Program and twice awarded Teacher of the Year in Orthopaedic Surgery by The Johns Hopkins Hospital by the Hopkins School of Medicine. He also received the National Marfan Foundation Hero with a Heart Award and the Arthur H. Heune Award for career research from the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America. Dr. Sponseller has traveled to Guyana, South America, on three separate occasions to volunteer as a Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon for Project Dawn and to Uganda for the Exstrophy program.

Dr. Sponseller has been a member of several medical boards and associations, including the President of the Scoliosis Research Society, the Research Council Chair / Board of Directors for the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America, and the Professional Advisory Board Member of the National Marfan Foundation. He is the Deputy Editor for Pediatrics for the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Deputy Editor of Spine Deformity, and a reviewer for many journals.

He currently holds the Paul D. Sponseller, M.D. Professorship in Pediatric Orthopaedics at Hopkins.