Powerhouse Presenters
Here’s a first look at confirmed presenters for #ACRM2022. There are many, many more to come. Click the names of the presenters below to view their biographies and scheduled presentations.
To see the full presentation schedule, please visit our Online Program.
Nada Andelic, MD, PhD
Professor II, Physiatrist
University of Oslo, Institute of Health & Society, Department of Nursing Science and Oslo University Hospital, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Oslo, Norway
Dr. Nada Andelic (MD, PhD) is a Prof. at the Research Centre for Habilitation and Rehabilitation Models and Services (CHARM), Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, a specialist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Head of Research and Development, the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. Her main research areas are epidemiology and risk factors of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and multiple traumas, short and long-term functional outcomes and health-related quality of life, health-care and rehabilitation services, rehabilitation trajectories, complex interventions, and cost-effectiveness of rehabilitation. She has numerous peer-reviewed research articles and serves as peer reviewer for numbers of international journals and Research Granting Agencies worldwide.
University of Oslo
Juan Carlos C. Arango Lasprilla, PhD
Research Professor
BioCruces Vizcaya Health Research Institute in Bilbao, Spain
Dr. Juan Carlos Arango-Lasprilla is currently a Research Professor at BioCruces Vizcaya Health Research Institute in Bilbao, Spain. He has been instrumental in securing over $7 million dollars in grant funding as PI and co-PI. Dr. Arango has received many awards for his accomplishments in the area of neuropsychology including awards from the National Academic of Neuropsychology, the American Psychological Association, the International Brain Injury Association, the International Neuropsychological Society and The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. He has published more than 300 articles and book chapters and edited 10 books. Dr. Arango has been a guest editor of 12 special issues in prominent rehabilitation journals. Dr. Arango has lectured at Grand Rounds at more than 95 different universities across the globe. He organized and chaired 4 international conferences on neuropsychology, cultural issues and Brain Injury Rehabilitation. Dr. Arango is a founding member of the Colombian Neuropsychological Society, and he founded the IberoAmerican Journal of Neuropsychology. His research focuses on understanding and addressing the cognitive, psychological, and emotional needs of individuals with brain injury and their families. He is particularly interested in under-served populations, such as Spanish speakers, and carries out research in the US, Europe, and Latin America. He was PI of a large, multi-center norming study in which more than 14,000 adults and children from over 15 Latin American countries. Thanks to his leadership, normative data by country is now available for the 12 most commonly used neuropsychological tests in each respective population.
BioCruces Vizcaya Health Research Institute
Hira Byrne Paulin, Certified Rehabilitation Counselor
Certified Rehabilitation Counselor/PhD Candidate
Northern Illinois University
Hira Byrne Paulin M.Ed, CRC is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor. She has a combined over 20 years of personal and professional experience with the disability community. She specializes in working with service-connected veterans. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between the military community and the rehabilitation field. Her work with military affiliated populations centers on increased awareness of the functional impacts of disability, developing self-advocacy skills, and increased knowledge of community-based services, benefits, and accommodations. Her work within the rehabilitation field aims to increase military inclusive pathways and knowledge of military culture for providers. She has worked with active duty personnel and veterans in: state and federal vocational rehabilitation programs, transition from service seminars, and post-secondary education. She has been a part of the military community for over a decade. She is currently a PhD candidate at Northern Illinois University in Health Scicenes, her research focus is military moral injury.
Northern Illinois University
Carrie Callahan, MSPT, ATP
President
Empower SCI
Carrie Callahan, PT, ATP has practiced physical therapy for over 18 years, graduating from Ithaca College in 2003. She is co-founder and current president of a non-profit organization, Empower Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), which hosts Summer Residential Rehabilitation Programs (SRRP) in Stony Brook, NY and Missoula, MT each summer. She specializes in seating, positioning and wheeled mobility, earning her Assistive Technology Professional Certification in 2015, and also holds a position as part of the rehabilitation team at Commonwealth Care Alliance. She has a passion for teaching manual wheelchair skills, and has led Empower SCI in teaching these skills at Abilities Expos and through day courses for students, therapists and wheelchair-users in the Long Island and Boston communities. At Empower, she is co-founder and president of the program, leader of wheelchair skills activities, leader of the Knobby Tire Ride and Roll Fall fundraiser, coordinates participant applications and communications, and loves to co-lead the Back on Board surfing event each July.
Empower SCI
Alison M. Cogan, PhD, OTR/L
Health Science Specialist
VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System
Los Angeles, California
Alison M. Cogan, PhD, OTR/L is an occupational therapist and rehabilitation health services researcher. Her primary research interest is the association between therapy characteristics and patient outcomes, particularly those related to community reintegration for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Dr. Cogan’s work has focused on the rehabilitation needs of military service members and Veterans with TBI. She is currently affiliated with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System where she also serves as project director for the Coordinating Hub to Promote Research Optimizing Veteran-centric EHR Networks (PROVEN), a multi-site hub that supports research and evaluation initiatives related to the Veterans Administration’s transition from a homegrown electronic health record to a commercial product.
VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System
John D. Corrigan, PhD
Professor
Ohio State University, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
John D. Corrigan, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Ohio State University and Director of the Ohio Valley Center for Brain Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. Dr. Corrigan has been the PI and co-PI of the Ohio Regional Traumatic Brain Injury Model System since 1997 and chaired the Executive Committee of the TBI Model Systems Project Directors from 2007-2017. He has more than 185 peer reviewed publications and has received many awards for his service and research in brain injury rehabilitation, including the Brain Injury Association of America’s William Fields Caveness Award, the 2007 Robert L. Moody Prize and the Gold Key Award from the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Ohio State University
Theresa Hayes Cruz, PhD
Director
National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health
Theresa Hayes Cruz, Ph.D., became director of NCMRR in August 2020, after serving as acting director since September 2019. She has been a full-time NIH staff member since 2009.
Through basic, translational, and clinical research, NCMRR fosters the development of scientific knowledge needed to enhance the health, productivity, independence, and quality-of-life of people with physical disabilities.
In addition to her duties at NCMRR, Dr. Cruz is a team lead in the NIH Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative where she co-manages a grant portfolio in the areas of neurotechnology development, validation, and translation for applications in neuroscience, neurophysiology, movement disorders, pain, neuromodulation, and other interfaces with the nervous system.
In 2015, Dr. Cruz performed a research detail at the Functional and Applied Biomechanics Laboratory in the Rehabilitation Medicine Department of the NIH Clinical Center. In late 2016, she returned fulltime to NCMRR.
Dr. Cruz received her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering with highest honors from the School of Engineering at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University.
Her previous research at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago focused on motor control and gait impairments of the lower limb following stroke.
National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research
Anne Deutsch, PhD, RN, CRRN, FACRM
Senior Research Public Health Analyst
RTI international
Anne is a Senior Research Public Health Analyst at RTI International, a Clinical Research Scientist at the Shirley Ryan Abilitylab’s (formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research and a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a certified rehabilitation registered nurse with a doctoral degree in Epidemiology and Community Health. At RTI, has assisted the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to implement the Improving Medicare Post Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act, the IRFCompare website, confidential feedback reports for inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. She has developed quality measures used in the inpatient rehabilitation facility, long-term care hospital and skilled nursing facility quality reporting programs. At Shirley Ryan Abilitylab, Anne is a co-investigator on the Midwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model System project. Anne has served on several expert panels sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, The Institute of Medicine, and the National Quality Forum, The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the World Health Organization. She is the author or co-author or more than 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters.
RTI International
Christina Dillahunt-Aspillaga, PhD, CRC, CVE, CLCP, CBIST, ICVE, FACRM
Associate Professor
University of South Florida
Dr. Dillahunt-Aspillaga received her PhD in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Florida. She is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC), a Certified Vocational Evaluator (CVE), a Certified Life Care Planner (CLCP), International Certified Vocational Evaluator (ICVE-D) and a Certified Brain Injury Specialist Trainer (CBIST). She is employed as a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies, Rehabilitation & Mental Health Counseling program at the University of South Florida, Tampa. Her research interest areas include employment for persons with disabilities. Other interests include family and community support, caregiving, and community re-integration for civilians and Veterans with traumatic brain injury.
University of South Florida
Ekaterina Dobryakova, PhD
Research Scientist
Kessler Foundation
Dr. Dobryakova conducts clinical research in populations with cognitive dysfunction caused by traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, her research is focused on examining the activity of the fronto-striatal network during outcome processing and the role these regions play in depression and fatigue. Her findings indicate that noninvasive, nonpharmacologic interventions may be useful for addressing deficits in learning processes, and in ameliorating the impact of debilitating cognitive fatigue.
Dr. Dobryakova is the author of over 20 peer-reviewed articles, and chapters in the Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology and Cognition and Behavior in Multiple Sclerosis. Her research funding includes NIH, NIDILRR, National MS Society, New Jersey Health Foundation, and the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research. Dr. Dobryakova is an active member of the ACRM’s Neurodegenerative Diseases Networking Group and the Communications committee for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. She is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
Kessler Foundation
Patricia A. Dorn, PhD
Director, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service
Department of Veterans Affairs
Patricia A. Dorn, PhD, serves as Director for the Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) Service in the Department of Veterans Affairs. In this role Dr. Dorn is engaged in all aspects of RR&D, an intramural research funding program that encompasses the diverse rehabilitation needs of Veterans. RR&D is sharply focused to advance scientific knowledge and foster innovations to maximize Veterans’ functional independence and participation in their lives an community. Her background and training is in hearing science and audiology. She received degrees from Purdue University (PhD), The Ohio State University (MA) and Michigan State University (BA). Prior to joining the VA she was a research scientist at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Dorn has taught courses in hearing science/audiology, trained and supervised audiology students, as well as provided audiology clinical services to persons of all ages.
Department of Veterans Affairs
Inbal Eshel, MA, CCC-SLP, PMP
Implementation Specialist
Defense Health Agency
As the lead Implementation and Training Specialist on the Defense Health Agency’s Knowledge Translation team, Inbal Eshel, MA, CCC-SLP, PMP, leads large-scale projects and initiatives aimed at bridging the gap between research and practice within the Military Health System. Previously, she served as Senior Principal Scientist at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, where she led efforts to develop Clinical Recommendations (CRs) as a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Subject Matter Expert. Trained as a Speech-Language Pathologist, she worked in the clinical realm for a dozen years, most recently as lead TBI Speech-Language Pathologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where she played an integral role in developing the cognitive rehabilitation program while working with inpatient and outpatient Active Duty Service Members, Veterans, and their dependents. She has co-chaired ACRM’s Community Reintegration Task Force, which falls under the Military and Veterans Networking Group, since 2018.
Defense Health Agency
Tina Fanello, LCSW
Social Worker / Associate Director of Clinical Operations
Marcus Institute for Brain Health – University of Colorado
Tina is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Brain Injury Specialist. She has 20 years of experience in TBI rehabilitation in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Tina started working for the Marcus Institute for Brain Health (MIBH) in 2017 and currently serves as the Associate Director of Clinical Operations. Prior to joining the team at MIBH, Tina worked as a transition specialist in various TBI clinics at military bases across the country. She enjoys hiking, biking, and camping in Colorado.
Marcus Institute for Brain Health – University of Colorado
Susan E. Fasoli, ScD, OTR/L
Professor, Occupational Therapy
MGH Institute of Health Professions
Dr. Fasoli is a professor of occupational therapy at the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She has incorporated the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS) into the OTD courses to facilitate the development of students’ clinical reasoning skills for evidence-based practice. Her clinical and research expertise is in neurorehabilitation, with an emphasis on the use of robot-assisted therapy and cognitive strategy training for individuals after stroke. Her experience in outcome measurement and occupational performance provides a strong foundation for examining mechanisms of stroke recovery and the translation of improved upper limb motor function to use of the paretic arm within the home and community. Dr. Fasoli recently stepped down from her role as a section editor for the Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. She is an active member of the ACRM RTS Networking Group and Curriculum Task Force and co-chair of the ACRM Stroke Movement Interventions Task Force.
MGH Institute of Health Professions
Anjali J. Forber-Pratt, PhD
Director
National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)
Anjali J. Forber-Pratt, Ph.D. is a disability activist, a two-time Paralympian and the Director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) in the Administration for Community Living. As a researcher, her primary area of work relates to disability identity development. As a wheelchair-user for over 35 years, Dr. Forber-Pratt is nationally and internationally recognized as a disability leader and mentor. As a Paralympic medalist in the sport of wheelchair racing, she has dedicated her life to helping others recognize their potential. Globally, she is involved with disability advocacy efforts related to access to employment, education and sport through public speaking and media appearances. She was a White House Champion of Change in 2013 and the American Psychological Association awarded her the 2020 Citizen Psychologist Award for Advancing Disability as a Human Rights and Social Justice Issue Award.
National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)
Jen French, MBA
President
North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium
Jennifer French, MBA, is a co-founder and current President of the North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium. She is also the founder of Neurotech Network, a nonprofit organization that intently tracks the neurotechnology industry, gains end-user feedback, and coordinates patient engagement initiatives. French is also a Consultant and Contributing Editor of Neurotech Reports, a leading news publication and market analysis firm for the neurotechnology industry. In the past, she has helped launch successful divisions in such organizations as Bombardier Capital and Connection, as well as several not-for-profit organizations. More recently, she has been working with neurotech companies at various stages toward their commercialization efforts. Jennifer has been featured in several media outlets and is an accomplished writer and speaker who has addressed organizations, such as the National Academy of Sciences, the World Science Festival, and TEDx Talks to name a few. She serves on several advisory boards including the IEEE Neuroethics initiative, NINDS Common Data Elements, DOD CDMRP Spinal Cord Injury Research Program, and the American Bionics Project. Jennifer lives with tetraplegia due to a spinal cord injury. She is a silver medalist in the 2012 Paralympic Games and is the 2012 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year; the first woman with a disability to receive this distinction. She is the co-founder of the Warrior Sailing Program, a maritime education program for wounded, ill, and injured service members through the USMMA Sailing Foundation. She is the author of On My Feet Again (2013), her personal story of rehabilitation using neurotechnology, and Bionic Pioneers (2014), a collection of personal experiences of neurotechnology end-users.
North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium
Jennifer G. Goldman, MD, MS
Section Chief
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Dr. Jennifer G. Goldman, MD, MS is the Section Chief, Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and Professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. She is the Fellowship director for the first-ever PD and Movement Disorders Neurorehabilitation fellowship at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Dr. Goldman is a fellowship-trained movement disorder neurologist with specialty board certification in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry. Dr. Goldman graduated from Princeton University, received her MD from Northwestern University Medical School, and completed her neurology residency training at Washington University in St. Louis, followed by a movement disorder fellowship and a Master of Science degree in clinical research at Rush University in Chicago. Dr. Goldman is a clinician-researcher who has been a pioneer in the cognitive and behavioral aspects of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and movement disorders and a longstanding champion and leader in interdisciplinary care. Her work focuses on improving treatments and outcomes for PD and developing novel interdisciplinary care models. She has been funded by federal, foundation, and other sponsors and has published over 100 scholarly articles and book chapters. She directs the Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) Research Center of Excellence at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and chairs the LBDA Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr. Goldman is the co-chair of the Parkinson’s Foundation Rehabilitation Task Force, chair of the International Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorder Society (MDS) PD-MCI Validation study group, and Secretary of the MDS Pan-American Section. Dr. Goldman serves on the MDS Task Forces on Leadership and Interdisciplinary and Integrated care, several journal Editorial boards, and as Parkinson’s Foundation Team Training faculty. She is the past chair of the AAN Movement Disorders Section, MDS Pan-American Section Education Committee, and Parkinson Study Group Biomarkers Working Group.
Department of Veterans Affairs
James E. Graham, PhD
Professor
Colorado State University
James is Director of the Center for Community Partnerships and a Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Colorado State University. He was the founding chair of the ACRM Health Services Networking Group for the ACRM and currently serves as co-chair of the Policy and Legislation Committee. His research focuses on the factors affecting variability in health and functional outcomes with a particular interest in the hierarchy of health determinants and how attributes from different levels (i.e., person-level, provider-level, and community- or system-level) influence the health and functional independence of individuals and populations.
Defense Health Agency
Flora M. Hammond, MD
Professor and Chair
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Indiana University School of Medicine
Dr. Hammond is professor and Chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Indiana University School of Medicine; Chief of Medical Affairs at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana; and project director of the Indiana Traumatic Brain Injury Model System program. Dr. Hammond’s research and advocacy focuses on the long-term issues confronting individuals with disability and treatment effectiveness.
Indiana University School of Medicine
Seth Herman, MS
Director, Traumatic Brain Injury
California Rehabilitation Institute
Dr. Herman is a Physiatrist with a subspeciality in Brain Injury Medicine. He is currently the Brain Injury Medical Director of California Rehabilitation Institute which is a joint venture of Cedars Sinai Hospital System and UCLA. Prior to taking on this position; he was Director of Brain Injury Medicine Fellowship at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital within the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. He obtained his medical degree at Penn State and residency training at Shirley Ryan Ability Ability/Formerly known as Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago/Northwestern Medical School. His research and clinical interests are focused on the treatment and improvement of functional outcomes of those who suffered traumatic and acquired brain injuries as well as functional neurological disorders. He is interested in the evaluation and management of potential medical barriers that can impair functional outcomes such as poor sleep, pain, spasticity, neuro-endocrine dysfunction, neurobehavioral, cognitive, physical and emotional deficits. As a trained physiatrist, he has the expertise to understand the whole patient and the role of body system/structure deficits and impact on activity and participation.
California Rehabilitation Institute
Amy A. Herrold, PhD, RYT
Research Health Scientist & Research Associate Professor
Edward Hines Jr., VA Hospital & Northwestern University
Dr. Herrold is an addiction neuroscientist focused on developing neuroscience-informed treatments for co-occurring alcohol use disorder (AUD) and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Her overall hypothesis is that exacerbated brain dysfunction with the co-occurrence of AUD+mTBI leads to exacerbated behavioral dysfunction, such as elevated alcohol craving. Customizing neuromodulatory treatments to treat this brain dysfunction are warranted given the heterogeneity of these conditions. Dr. Herrold is also pursuing development of combinatorial neuromodulation and yoga interventions for the treatment of mTBI and chronic pain. Dr. Herrold is the recipient of a Department of Veterans Affairs, Merit and SPiRE awards.
Edward Hines Jr., VA Hospital & Northwestern University
Patricia C. Heyn, PhD, FGSA, FACRM
Founding Director Center for Optimal Aging
Marymount University
Patricia C. Heyn, PhD, FGSA, FACRM is the Founding Director of the Marymount Center for Optimal Aging and Professor of Health Sciences at Marymount University. In addition, she is the co-principal investigator of the Cerebral Palsy and Adult Transition Program (CPAT) from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Heyn has been involved in disability, gerontological, and applied clinical health research, mentorship, instruction, and program development for over 20 years. Her investigations related to (1) patient-reported health outcomes with a focus on individuals with disability and underserved populations; (2) preventing or delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptom manifestation with physical activity and lifestyle approaches; and (3) cardiovascular risk factors and frailty characterization in individuals with disabilities have been funded by the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living, Coleman Institute, and the J.T. Tai Foundation. She has distinctive knowledge in evidence-based methodologies and clinical practice guidelines. Her meta-analysis study on the effects of exercise training for individuals with dementia is recognized as one of the most cited articles from the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is highly scored in Altmetric. She is well-known for developing effective evidence-based clinical research programs (i.e., PMID: 26472583, PMID: 24569702 and PMID: 30605502, PMID: 29568518) and she received several awards and honorable mentions for her effective mentoring style. As a veteran educator and mentor, Dr. Heyn is the director of the NIH R13 GSA Diversity, Mentoring, and Career Development Technical Assistance Workshop. Dr. Heyn is also Co-Program Director of the NIH R13 Complementary and Integrative Medicine Diversity Mentoring Workshop for Early Career Rehabilitation Scientists at the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM). Through many professional networks and platforms, Dr. Heyn has consistently mentored as many as 60 emerging scholars. Many of her mentees have become well established medical doctors, physical therapists, or academicians in elite universities such as Arizona State University, Emory University, University of Colorado, University of Kentucky and overseas. Dr. Heyn is a diversity, equity and inclusion champion and devotes significant effort in mentoring, designing programs, and opportunities for underrepresented scholars. She has been involved in several international academic programs and scientific projects. In December of 2006, her research was featured in one of Argentina’s leading newspapers, La Nación, after she delivered a keynote lecture at the 6th Neuropsychological Argentinean Congress. The National Alzheimer’s Association Featured Dr. Heyn’s research on the effects of exercise on dementia on its Maintain Your Brain ™ – the Science Behind the Recommendation website. Her research is also frequently cited in various media such as View of Washington, ABC 7 News, and other related media and scientific news reports. Dr. Heyn’s contributions to medical education and research is recognized internationally by the Alfonso Bovero Award from University of Sao Paulo.
Marymount University
Mark A. Hirsch, Ph.D., FACRM
Sr. Scientist
Carolinas Medical Center
Dr. Hirsch is a fellowship trained movement scientist. He was awarded a PhD from Florida State University (at age 29) titled “Effect of high intensity resistance and balance training in Parkinson’s disease” and completed an NIH T32 post-doctoral fellowship in neurorehabilitation research at Johns Hopkins Hospital (96-99), in the Department of PM&R (with Prof Barbara J. DeLateur, Mentor). He completed advanced training in Parkinson disease and Movement Disorders in the Department of Neurology at Dusseldorf University, Germany (with Prof Harald Hefter, Mentor). His current research interests are in gait and balance and in exercise-induced neuroplasticity, mostly in Parkinson disease. Dr. Hirsch conducted pioneering research on patient/provider/scientist collaboration. He works with clinicians who wish to empower individuals at all stages of Parkinsonism with more control over their lives. A system he calls “participatory medicine”. His contributions to the field of exercise and Parkinson diseases have changed the clinical rehabilitative management of patients with PD. In 2004, he joined the Carolinas Rehabilitation Faculty. Together with Atrium Health Neurosciences, Carolinas Rehabilitation, LiveWELL Health Center and local branches of the YMCA of Greater Charlotte, he co-developed with Sanjay Iyer, MD, RENEW Carolinas Parkinson Initiative (Research and Education in NEuro-Wellness) which in 2011, received funding from the Park Foundation. RENEW has received awards for patient care and research including the Ray of Hope Award from the Parkinson Association of the Carolinas. Dr. Hirsch was appointed Fellow of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine in 2019. He provides leadership on a variety of ACRM committees including the Neurodegenerative Diseases Networking group and the ACRM Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Current leadership on international boards includes the Journal of Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, scientific program committee for the World Congress of Parkinsonism and Related Disorders of the International Association of Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, Michael J Fox Foundation, the Fresco Parkinson Institute, Italy, and the Parkinson Foundation. A retired competitive ballroom formation team dancer, he enjoys spending time with his wife, two boys, and salsa dancing.
Carolinas Medical Center
Catharine H. Johnston-Brooks, PhD
Assistant Professor
Marcus Institute for Brain Health
Dr. Catie Johnston-Brooks, PhD, is a Board Certified Clinical Neuropsychologist (ABPP-CN) and Assistant Professor primarily appointed in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and secondarily in the Department of Neurology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CUAMC). She has been a clinical neuropsychologist and research coordinator at the Marcus Institute for Brain Health (MIBH) since 2017. Prior to that she worked for 18 years at the Denver VA Medical Center as the lead neuropsychologist and psychology internship training director. Dr. Johnston-Brooks is a former president of the Colorado Neuropsychological Society (2010-2011), member and chair of the Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund Board of Directors (2013-2019, chair 2016-2019), and chair of TBI Trust Fund’s Research and Program Evaluation committee (2014-2019). Currently, she is the co-chair of the Focus On Behavioral Health Issues task force within the Military/Veteran Affairs Networking Group in the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Research interests include behavioral health factors associated with mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI), progressive neurological disorders, and psychosocial contributors to health and behavior.
Marcus Institute for Brain Health
Shannon B. Juengst, PhD, CRC
Clinical Investigator and Adjunct Associate Professor
TIRR Memorial Hermann
I am a Clinical Investigator at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. I have 20 years of experience in research, ranging from coordinating intervention trials in traumatic brain injury and stroke in both inpatient rehabilitation and community-based settings to being PI on community-based and interventions studies for adults with acquired brain injuries and their care partners. My work focuses on behavioral and emotional outcomes after acquired brain injury for individuals and their care partners and improving these outcomes through problem-solving interventions, assessment, and innovative telehealth methods. I have a secondary focus in improving health disparities through accessible and adapted patient-reported outcome measures and behavioral health interventions.
TIRR Memorial Hermann
Sheryl D. Katta-Charles, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor, IU PM&R
Medical Director, Brain Injury Rehab, Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana
Sheryl Katta-Charles, M.D. joined IU Health Physicians and IU School of Medicine Department of PM&R Faculty in July 2015. Inspired by her family’s contributions to Leprosy Rehabilitation in India, she completed a residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan/Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. She received her medical doctorate degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies, and her undergraduate degrees in Biology and Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she studied learning, memory, neuroendocrine hormones, and behavior in rodents. She currently cares for patients with traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana. When she is not working, Dr. Charles enjoys teaching her dog tricks and traveling with her family.
Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana
Kristine T. Kingsley, PsyD, ABPP
Owner, Clinical Director
Institute of Cognitive and Emotional Wellness
Dr. Kristine Kingsley is the founder & clinical director of the Institute of Cognitive and Emotional Wellness in Westchester, New York. She serves as a clinical supervisor at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University and a neuropsychological testing supervisor at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Dr. Kingsley was a faculty member of Rehabilitation Medicine and Associate Coordinator of Internship Training at NYU Langone Health, Rusk Rehabilitation (2002-2019); she is board certified in rehabilitation psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. She has publications in peer reviewed journals and textbooks. Dr. Kingsley has presented both nationally and internationally on how to provide holistic neuro-rehabilitation services using evidenced-based and culturally competent models and practices.
Dr. Kingsley has been involved in the delivery of clinical services (assessment, intervention) to adults with an acquired neurological disorder. She has been active in designing protocols for individuals and families of individuals with diagnoses of traumatic brain injury, stroke, epilepsy, and mild cognitive impairment, Post-Concussion Syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, Brain Neoplasms and Multiple Sclerosis. She has supervised numerous psychology interns on how to provide evidenced based, integrative treatment to patients and their families. She is a faculty member of Cognitive Rehabilitation at the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM’s), co-author to their most recent systematic review (2009-2015), as well as one currently in progress. She recently participated in the writing of ACRM’s 2nd Edition “Cognitive Rehabilitation Manual and Textbook: Translating Evidence-Based Recommendations into Practice,” to be published in 2022.
She is currently serving as the Chair for ACRM’s International Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group (2021- 2023), while she also co-chairs of a service delivery task force. Additionally, she serves as Editor and Communications Chair for the American Board of Professional Psychology. She recently spearheaded an international task force along with other colleagues to study the global impact of COVID. She is a Site Visitor for the American Psychological Association Committee for Accreditation (CoA) for Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Psychology training programs.
Institute of Cognitive and Emotional Wellness
Patricia C. Heyn, PhD, FGSA, FACRM
Associate Professor
University of Alabama at Birmingham
BA Bard College. PhD University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Psychology Internship West Virginia University School of Medicine. Neuropsychology Fellow at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Associate Professor at UAB since 2012.
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Allan J. Kozlowski, PhD, B.Sc. (PT)
Assistant Professor
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Allan J. Kozlowski, Ph.D., B.Sc (PT), is the Director of Outcomes Research at the John F. Butzer Center for Research & Innovation, Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. He received his B.Sc. in physical therapy in 1991 and his PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences in 2010, both from the University of British Columbia. He practiced as a physical therapist and rehabilitation manager in work disability prevention before completing his doctorate in Rehabilitation Sciences. Dr. Kozlowski completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research at Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Center for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University, in which he constructed individual growth models for FIM Instrument scores for persons with spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries. In his current role, Dr. Kozlowski is leading an effort to model rehabilitation outcomes across post-acute care services for a variety of patient populations. Dr. Kozlowski has authored more than 30 articles on topics including modeling of rehabilitation outcomes as individual trajectories of change, psychometric properties of measurement instruments, and exoskeleton-assisted walking. He has also instructed courses in longitudinal modeling, measurement in clinical practice, and physical therapy clinical skills.
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Kurt Kroenke, MD
Professor of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Dr. Kroenke is Professor of Medicine at Indiana University and a Research Scientist in the Regenstrief Institute. He is a past President of the Society of General Internal Medicine from which he received the 2018 Glaser Award for lifetime achievement. He is also a past President of the Association for Clinical Research Training which honored him with its Distinguish Educator Award. His research focuses on physical and psychological symptoms in medical patients including pain, depression, and anxiety. He has also developed the PHQ-9 depression scale, GAD-7 anxiety scale, PEG pain scale, and other brief patient-reported outcome measures. He has more than 400 peer-reviewed publications.
Indiana University School of Medicine
Keith Lohse, PhD, PStat
Associate Professor
Washington University School of Medicine
I am an Associate Professor of Physical Therapy and Neurology in the Program of Physical Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis. I am also accredited as a Professional Statistician (PStat) by the American Statistical Association. I study measurement, design, and analysis as they pertain to rehabilitation science and clinical practice. Rehabilitation is a complex, dynamic process with many interacting factors at physiological, psychological, and sociological levels. To that end, I have specialized in longitudinal and multivariate modeling techniques to help disentangle these problems and mechanistically explore the rehabilitation process.
TIRR Memorial Hermann
Sangeetha Madhavan, PT, PhD
Professor
University of Illinois, Chicago
Dr. Madhavan PT, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, and Director of the Brain Plasticity Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has been involved in stroke neurorehabilitation research for the last 20 years. Her research goals include developing individualized therapeutic approaches to advance existing rehabilitation practices using state-of-art technologies like transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation and gamification. Currently, she is leading several clinical trials examining the mechanisms and effects of motor priming on functional outcomes in neurological populations. Her work has been supported by NIH, AHA, NIDRR and others.
University of Illinois, Chicago
Trudy Mallinson, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, FACRM
Associate Professor
The George Washington University
Dr. Mallinson is Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the George Washington University. Dr. Mallinson’s research interests are designing and refining health outcome assessments and visualization of health outcomes so that clinicians, patients, and caregivers can make better treatment decisions, together. She advocates that assessments should look and operate like rulers, so they can used them that way: to measure a single dimension at a time, compare real patient differences, regardless of who is using the ruler or who they are measuring. Her research focuses on improving outcome measurement in severe TBI, standardized assessment in rehabilitation, and developing measurement methodology. She is skilled in the application of Rasch Measurement, reliability and validity testing, and advanced measurement methodologies.
The George Washington University
Shari Marchbanks, PT, DPT, NCS
Physical Therapist & Program Manager
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Shari Marchbanks, PT, DPT, NCS is a Board Certified Specialist in Neurologic Physical therapy and the program manager for the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Program at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, IL. Ms. Marchbanks received her BS in Movement Science from the University of Michigan, graduated with her doctorate in physical therapy from The University of Southern California (USC), and completed her neurological residency with USC and Ranch Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, where she furthered her education in treating patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and other neurologic conditions. Prior to relocating to Chicago, Shari was on faculty at USC where she taught in the physical therapy program, treated patients in the acute rehabilitation setting, and worked on several research projects related to PD. She also has worked at a private clinic geared toward people with PD and movement disorders and managed a variety of community exercise classes for this population around Los Angeles. She has further certification in Parkinson’s Disease as a PWR! Certified therapist and Allied Team Training for Parkinson’s through the Parkinson’s Foundation. In her role as program manager, Ms. Marchbanks works with Dr. Goldman and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab interdisciplinary team to advance clinical practice, research, community outreach, and education for PD and movement disorders.
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Victor W. Mark, MD
Associate Professor
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Undergraduate training, Cornell University. Medical school, Albany Medical College. Neurology residency, New York University. Research fellowship, Behavioral Neurology, University of Florida. Associate Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, since 1999, with secondary appointments of Departments of Neurology and Psychology. Director of UAB FND Clinic since 2017.
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Shannon Miles, PhD
Clinical Psychologist
James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital
Dr. Miles is a clinical psychologist at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. Her research and clinical work explore ways to assist Veterans and Service Members recover from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and challenging comorbidities such as emotion dysregulation, aggression, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). She is principal investigator (PI) on a multi-site VA Clinical Science Research and Development study that is examining a 3 session aggression treatment and a VA Health Service Research and Development grant that seeks to determine if the VA’s mild TBI screen leads to more appropriate service utilization and better quality of life for post 9-11 Veterans. She is also a Site Multiple-PI on the Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium (LIMBIC-CENC).
James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital
Megan Mitchell, PhD
Human Factors Researcher II
Cerner
As a Human Factors Researcher II, Dr. Mitchell is responsible for validating the usability and safety of Electronic Health Record systems and digital medical devices through measures of various quantitative and qualitative user research metrics. She provides guidance for design and innovation throughout the discovery phase to implementation, conducting formative and summative research and completing regulatory requirements. Prior to this role, Dr. Mitchell was a Biomedical Engineer, focused upon biomechanics and rehabilitation engineering with a passion and interest in bone and muscle health. She was responsible for designing and incorporating devices and interventions in the clinical setting and investigating novel approaches or providing evidence for clinical practices. Dr. Mitchell has been a member of ACRM since 2012, a member of multiple NGs within ACRM, and served in multiple leadership positions.
Cerner
Philip A. Morse, PhD, FACRM
Teacher/mentor, Psychologist
Semi-retired
Philip Morse, PhD, FACRM is a semi-retired teacher/mentor and psychologist (specialty in neuropsychology) living in Portland, ME. He and his wife (Amy) are currently channeling their professional energies and backgrounds into local community and international nonprofit activities. He currently serves on the Board of Camp Unity, a New Zealand project for Young Carers and their families. His avocational passions are traveling, photography and poetry.
Recently (2017-2020), Phil worked part-time as an Expert Psychologist and Chief Clinical Officer for LIH Healthcare’s Starship Rehabilitation Hospital in Kunming, China. Prior to China, he worked as a Specialist Neuropsychologist/Clinical Services Development at ABI Rehabilitation New Zealand (2014-2017). Phil has learned about the importance of different cultural models of rehabilitation from his experiences with Maori and Chinese cultures.
Phil received his BA in Psychology from Brown University, his MA and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Connecticut. Phil taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1971-1982) and completed a Clinical Psychology Re-specialization Program followed by an Internship at the Boston VA Hospital in 1981. He was promoted Professor of Psychology at UW-Madison (1981). In 1982 he returned to the Boston area as the Director of Psychology at New England Rehabilitation Hospital (Woburn, MA) and taught Neuropsychology as a Research Professor/Lecturer at Boston University (1983-1997). Phil then worked as the Director of Psychological Services at New England Rehabilitation Hospital of Portland (1995-1998). He co-founded and was President of Neurobehavioral Services of New England in Portland, ME (1997-2013), a group practice of rehabilitation neuropsychologists and clinical psychologists. Phil is a neuropsychologist with considerable experience in cognitive rehabilitation and teaching. He has been active for over 35 years in ACRM in the BI-ISIG (Chair), Stroke ISIG (Chair) and the International ISIG (Service Delivery TF). He is a Fellow of ACRM and received the ACRM Distinguished Member Award.
Semi-retired
Barry Munro
Treasurer
North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium
Barry Munro is the Chief Development Officer of the Canadian/American Spinal Research Organization, which was established in 1984 to fund targeted research to maximize functional recovery and cure paralysis caused by spinal cord injury. Barry also currently holds the position of Treasurer for the North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium, a community led organization which has the mission to bring about unified achievements in research, care, cure, and policy by supporting collaborative efforts across the spinal cord injury community.
Barry is a lawyer by trade and practiced personal injury law for over 10 years. Barry is a quadriplegic who sustained a spinal cord injury in 1987 and has been an active advocate in SCI research for over 30 years.
North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium
Joe Nahra
Director of Government Relations
Powers Law Firm
Joe is Director of Government Relations at Powers, Pyles, Sutter, & Verville PC (“Powers Law”) in Washington, DC, with expertise in federal health care, rehabilitation, and disability policy and advocacy. He is also a co-coordinator for the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Coalition (DRRC), a coalition of more than 20 national non-profit organizations committed to improving the science of disability, independent living, and rehabilitation. Its mission is to maximize the return on the federal investment in disability, independent living, and rehabilitation research and development with the goal of improving the ability of Americans with disabilities to live and function as independently as possible. ACRM is a founding member of the DRRC and has helped lead the Coalition as a Steering Committee member since its inception. In recent years, the DRRC has spearheaded engagement with federal research agencies (including NIH and NIDILRR) as well as other key offices in the Biden Administration and Congress regarding the need for explicit research and policy priorities relating to the direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with disabilities and/or pre-existing chronic health conditions.
Powers Law Firm
Anne Norup, PhD
Neuropsychologist, Head of
Videnscenter for Neurorehabilitering Neurocentret, Righospitalet.
Anne Norup is an associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark and is head of Knowledge and Research Centre for Neurorehabilitation, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen. Anne Norup has worked as a clinician and researcher within neurorehabilitation for many years.
Most of her published research has examined the impact of traumatic brain injury on the family, needs and burdens in the family after brain injury, psychosocial effects of TBI in adolescents and s current and ongoing research interest is fatigue after brain injury and
exploring possible interventions. Currently, Anne is the principle investigator of a research study investigating the effects of a manualized intervention program to families living with the consequences of TBI or spinal cord injury. Recently, Anne Norup has been appointed as
the head of a newly founded Knowledge and Research Centre in Neurorehabilitation, Rigshospitalet, where she will be working dedicated to improving the cross-sectoral neurorehabilitation for patients with injury to the brain or spinal cord.
Videnscenter for Neurorehabilitering Neurocentret, Righospitalet.
Annie O'Connor, PT, OCS, Cert. MDT
Founder & CEO, Physical Therapist
World of Hurt LLC
Annie O’Connor, PT, OCS, Cert. MDT is Founder and CEO of a World of Hurt, LLC a dedicated consulting, teaching, telehealth, and research company for the application of Pain Mechanism Classification System (PMCS) into clinical practice. In addition, she is a Physical Therapy Manager for Anthem AIM Specialty Health Back Pain Guide Program. Annie has co-authored 2020, Pain Mechanism Classification Chapter, Rehabilitation of The Spine: A Patient Center Approach 3e, Liebenson C (ed). Wolters Kluwer Philadelphia publisher. She has co-authored 2021 and 2017, Therapeutic Exercise Chapter, Orthopedic Knowledge Update Spine 6 & 5, American Academy for Orthopedic Surgeons publisher. This chapter specifically is dedicated to helping Medical Doctors understand the PMCS and the importance in therapeutic exercise selection. She has co-authored 2015 book “A World of Hurt: A Guide to Classifying Pain” and September 2016 Journal Article in JMMT “Validation of a PMCS in physical therapy practice.” She is an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist of the APTA and has a Certification in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy in the McKenzie Method (Cert. MDT). She teaches nationally and internationally the World of HURT training courses, a six course training series designed for interdisciplinary application of the PMCS into clinical practice. She lectures nationally and internationally pain mechanism classification, neurodynamic evaluation and treatment, MDT of the spine and extremities, kinetic chain evaluation, functional manual therapy, and exercise prescription. She was instrumental in establishing the Pain Mechanism Classification System framework for musculoskeletal pain and neurological spasticity at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, formerly known as the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. She is a member of APTA, the North American Spine Society (NASS) serving on the Exercise Committee, and McKenzie Institute. She continues to treat orthopedic, neurological patients, and canines with pain and spasticity to achieve the best life possible through her Chicago based private practice.
World of Hurt LLC
Elisa F. Ogawa, PhD
Health Science Specialist
VA Boston Healthcare System
Elisa F Ogawa, PhD is an exercise physiologist with expertise in prescribing exercise to older adults. During her graduate work, Dr. Ogawa developed an interest in how exercise can not only improve mobility performance but also improve cognition among older adults. For her dissertation, she developed a program that combined physical and cognitive training and examined the impact of an 8-week intervention on cognition and mobility among older adults at risk for falling. She is currently receiving her post-doctoral training at New England Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (NE-GRECC), VA Boston Healthcare System. In addition, as an exercise physiologist, Ogawa is providing clinical care to aging Veterans through the Boston Gerofit program, an exercise program for older Veterans. Her research goal is to develop a personalized rehabilitation program that considers Veterans’ mobility and cognition. Her recent work is focusing on the understanding of the interrelationship between mobility and cognition in older adults to identify which component of mobility or cognition needs to be targeted for personalized rehabilitative training.
VA Boston Healthcare System
John H. O'Neill, PhD
Director
Kessler Foundation, Center for Employment and Disability Research
John O’Neill, PhD, is a national expert in disability employment, with more than 35 years of experience in vocational rehabilitation research. His research has been funded by federal grants and private sources including the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation. He has served as project co-director of three employment-focused NIDILRR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTC), as well as a co-investigator of the Northern New Jersey Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Model System. He is former principal investigator of the RRTC on the Community Integration of People with TBI, and worked for more than eight years on NIDILRR-funded research to improve vocational rehabilitation services for persons with AIIDS. O’Neill has served on the NY Rehabilitation Council and is on the faculty of Hunter College of the City University of New York, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. He is co-editor of National Trends in Disability Employment, a monthly report supported by NIDILRR that is issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire.
Kessler Foundation, Center for Employment and Disability Research
Andrew Packel, PT, NCS
Locomotor Coordinator
MossRehab
Andrew Packel, PT, NCS is a board-certified specialist in neurologic physical therapy with 25 years of experience, working mostly with individuals following stroke and traumatic brain injury. He is currently the Locomotor Coordinator at MossRehab outside of Philadelphia, PA. His primary areas of professional interest are optimizing interventions to improve walking, including the use of robotics and technology; and enhancing clinical reasoning in therapy practice through explicit consideration of the components of therapy. He has been involved with development and refinement of the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS) since its inception, a topic on which he has spoken regionally and nationally.
MossRehab
Monique R. Pappadis, MEd, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Dr. Pappadis is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Nutrition, Metabolism, and Rehabilitation Sciences, School of Health Professions at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) and an Investigator at the Brain Injury Research Center of TIRR Memorial Hermann. She has a diverse educational background in the biological sciences, psychology, health education, and social work, with specific training in measurement development, health education and promotion, psychoeducational interventions, and mixed methodologies. Her research includes health literacy after brain injury, minority aging, health disparities, and continuity of care after brain injury. Since 2004, she has conducted patient-centered outcomes research in stroke and traumatic brain injury, and most recently in older adult populations. Dr. Pappadis has won several research awards, made several national/international presentations, and disseminated over 40 peer-reviewed publications, two monographs in Spanish, one book chapter, and several educational materials for persons with brain injury and their caregivers. She is a member of the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists’ (ACBIS) Board of Governors of the Brain Injury Association of America and the Pink Concussions Professional Advisory Board. Dr. Pappadis has been an active member since 2008. She previously served as the Chair of the Early Career Development Course Task Force, two terms as the Early Career Officer for ACRM’s BI-ISIG Executive Committee, Communications Officer for ACRM’s BI-ISIG Executive Committee, and the Editor of BI-ISIG’s newsletter, Moving Ahead. She is active in numerous ACRM Special Interest Groups and Task Forces. She is currently the Co-Chair of the Career Development Networking Group and Chair of the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Carly Parry, PhD, MSW
Senior Advisor
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
Carly Parry, PhD, MSW is a Senior Advisor in the Healthcare Delivery and Disparities Research program at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, where she leads the $130M Transitional Care Evidence to Action Network and co-leads the $40M AHRQ/PCORI career development program to train learning health systems researchers. Dr. Parry’s expertise includes program development and leadership, health services research and delivery, dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices, quality metric testing and development, and mixed methodologies (quantitative and qualitative). Dr. Parry earned a joint doctorate in Social Work and Sociology, and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Parry began her career as a community organizer in the non-profit arena, was an NIH pre-doctoral fellow, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado, and served concurrently as Dissemination and Training Leads for the nationally-recognized Care Transitions Program™ Dr. Parry subsequently served as a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute, and a Care Improvement Researcher for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, a $20B health system.
Dr. Parry served as a Technical Expert on the AHRQ-supported initiative Developing Workforce Competencies in the Learning Healthcare System, has served as an expert for NAM, a thought leader for cancer and chronic illness initiatives, and was lead architect for National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding opportunities on survivorship care, and developed a model of cancer survivorship care highlighted in a 2013 IOM Report. She currently leads an $130M initiative to highlight and leverage PCORI’s transitional care research portfolio. Dr. Parry’s work is published in peer-reviewed journals, the Handbook of Oncology Social Work, blogs, and commentaries.
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
Peter Pidcoe, PT, DPT, PHD
Professor – Dept of Physical Therapy
Virginia Commonwealth University
Peter Pidcoe, PT, DPT, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the Virginia Commonwealth University. He directs the Engineering and Biomechanics Lab which blends students from engineering and physical therapy to work on projects that link engineering principles with physical therapy treatment and human performance measures. His research interests are in the areas of biomechanics, motor control, man-machine interface, and the application of virtual reality in rehabilitation.
Virginia Commonwealth University
Shanti Pinto, MD
Assistant Professor
Carolinas Rehabilitation
Dr. Pinto is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, specializing in Brain Injury Medicine, at Carolinas Rehabilitation in Charlotte, NC. She completed her medical education at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School as part of the Physician Scientist Training Program. She completed residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in 2016, where she received the Excellence in Brain Injury Medicine award. Dr. Pinto then completed fellowship in Brain Injury Medicine at UPMC in 2017. She is principal investigator of the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems follow-up site at Carolinas Rehabilitation. Her research interests include functional mobility following TBI. She is an active member of the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification Networking Group.
Carolinas Rehabilitation
Ginger Polich, MD
Instructor
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Ginger Polich, MD, MS is an Instructor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Home Base, a Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Program. She specializes in neurorehabilitation for individuals with a history of traumatic brain injury, stroke, and functional neurological disorder.
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Andrew Packel, PT, NCS
OT Research Scientist
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Jessica Presperin Pedersen OTD, MBA, ATP/SMS is an occupational therapist with over 40 years of experience, specializing in wheelchairs and seating and is certified as a specialist in seating and mobility. She is a research scientist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, is the Clinical DIrector at Devices for the Disabled (D4D) an non-profit orgnaization which recycles and redistributes used durable medical and complex rehab technology equipment. She recently became the North Amerian Clinical Education Director at Sunrise Medical.
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Rachel M. Proffitt, OTD, OTR/L
Assistant Professor
University of Missouri
Assistant professor with ten years of research experience in virtual reality and technology for stroke motor rehabilitation including quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, data analysis and translation from clinical to engineering/programming. Teaching experience in research methods and assistive technology. Clinical experience in an inpatient setting focusing on neurological populations and assistive technology evaluations.
University of Missouri
Veronica T. Rowe, MS(R), CBIST, FNAP, PhD, OTR/L
Assistant Professor
Georgia State University
Dr. Veronica Rowe obtained a master’s degree in occupational therapy from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in 1996 and a PhD in occupational therapy from Texas Woman’s University (TWU) in 2016. In her experience as an occupational therapist, she has worked in various areas of adult and geriatric care including acute care, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, long term care, burns, hands, and psychiatric care, all areas with an emphasis in neurological disorders. She also has a master’s degree in research from St. Louis University which has assisted her in many research endeavors. Prior to her work in academia, she spent her career in St. Louis, Missouri at St. Anthony’s Medical Center; Baltimore, Maryland at Johns Hopkins Bayview; and in Atlanta, Georgia at Emory University. She served as a project coordinator for numerous research studies at Emory University involving rehabilitation therapies for the neurologically compromised upper extremity, including constraint induced movement therapy, mental imagery, and use of robotic devices. She also collaborated on several research studies involving task specific training and neurorehabilitation assessment measures at the University of Southern California. Currently, she is working on the TRANSPORT2 national clinical trial where she trains, coordinates, and adjudicates the raters of outcome measures involving the hemiparetic upper extremity. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, and has presented nationally, internationally, and virtually for a wide variety of audiences. She is also a Certified Brain Injury Specialist Trainer. Her dissertation and research area of interest is neurorehabilitation after stroke or head injury, specifically, contemporary approaches of neurorehabilitation, such as task oriented training, as well as outcome measures related to the neurologically involved population. Dr. Rowe is currently working at Georgia State University in the Occupational Therapy department as a research faculty member. She is also serving as the ACRM Stroke ISIG chair.
Georgia State University
Angelle M. Sander
Professor
TIRR Memorial Hermann & Baylor College of Medicine
Angelle M. Sander, Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and Director of the Division of Clinical Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation Psychology. She is the Director of TIRR Memorial Hermann’s Brain Injury Research Center and has served as Project Co-Director for the Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems at TIRR since 2007. She has been Principle Investigator (PI) or Co-Investigator on federally funded studies addressing prediction and treatment of cognitive, emotional, and psychosocial problems in persons with TBI, intimacy and sexuality after TBI, impact of TBI on caregivers, and cultural disparities in outcomes following TBI.
TIRR Memorial Hermann & Baylor College of Medicine
Mathew Sanford, MA
Founder
Mind Body Solutions
Matthew Sanford is an expert in the process transformation through the healing power of yoga. Paralyzed from the chest down at age thirteen and beginning yoga at age twenty-five, Matthew knows firsthand the transformative effect that yoga can have on the mind-body relationship. He is an internationally recognized yoga teacher, a sought-after public speaker, and founder of the non-profit Mind Body Solutions. He is the author of the critically acclaimed WAKING: A MEMOIR OF TRAUMA AND TRANSCENDENCE (Rodale: 2006). Matthew has also emerged as a leading voice in the integrated health movement. He won the 2010 Pioneer of Integrative Medicine Award from the California Pacific Medical Center’s Institute of Health and Healing. Previous recipients include Dr. Deepok Chopra, Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr. Mehmet Oz. For more information: www.mindbodysolutions.org.
Mind Body Solutions
Pamela Shelmon
Executive Director
CRCC
Accomplished Executive with 15+ years of expertise and consistent success in achieving operational excellence, revenue goals, and business growth objectives. Visionary thought leader with a strong acumen for operational leadership and team empowerment that drive organizational improvements and best practices that deliver sustainable growth.
Executive Strengths:
Strategic Planning / Revenue & Business Development / P&L Management / Financial Plan Development / Client Relations / Strategic Alliances / Membership Management / Culture & Organizational Design & Development / Talent & Performance Management / Contract Negotiations / Mergers & Acquisitions / Compliance & Governance
Professional Highlights:
► Senior leadership contributions in strategic planning, business development, financial management, and operational excellence in diverse organizations including corporate, non-profit, and start-up business models.
► Champion of profitability. Skilled at negotiating favorable contracts that deliver millions in annual revenue, driving results top and bottom line growth.
► Quality-focused executive experienced in strategic program design and management of monitoring systems that ensure strict compliance and ensure quality assurance.
► Healthcare industry advocate who has spearheaded research alliances, professional and patient membership programs.
► Skilled spokesperson with the ability to deliver key messages to the media, legislative and regulatory bodies, healthcare professionals and consumers.
► Exceptional ability to cultivate strong relationships with C-level executives, clinicians, researchers, major donors, partner organizations, healthcare professionals, patients, and association members.
► Passionate about giving back. Current and former board member of non-profit organizations. Broad experience and knowledge of philanthropy.
CRCC
Justine 'Justice' Shorter, MA
Plenary Speaker
Disability Justice Advocate
Justice Shorter is a Disability Justice advocate and Black Disabled Lives Matter amplifier. She is a national expert on disability inclusive disaster protections, emergency management and humanitarian crises/conflicts. As a youth journalist in 2005, Justice began writing professionally on topics related to community development, humanitarian affairs and youth empowerment. Driven to action by these issues, she has studied community development in South Africa, Peace & Post-Conflict Reconciliation in Uganda/Rwanda, periodically returned to her childhood community to teach on subjects surrounding social action/communications and earned a B.A. in Journalism with minors in Justice & Peace Studies from Marquette University.
While earning her MA in Sustainable Development: International Policy & Management, Justice also interned within the White House Office of Public Engagement & Intergovernmental Affairs where she focused on disability outreach efforts, social inclusion policies and federal agency engagement.
In more recent years, Justice served as a Disability Integration Advisor with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, deploying frequently to disaster areas across America and its territories. She is also the co-creator of a celebrated framework for applying Disability Justice approaches to disaster assistance, an Emergency Management method that acknowledges histories of harm, centers intersectionality and prioritizes leadership by Black, Indigenous & People Of Color with disabilities. With a steadfast commitment to international development and inclusive humanitarian assistance, Justice continues to participate in ongoing projects as a global advisor and trainer.
Justice is currently the National Disaster Protection Advisor for the National Disability Rights Network where she advises the 57 federally mandated Protection & Advocacy agencies on any issues related to pandemics, fires, disasters and other emergencies. She is currently a Senior Fellow and adjunct faculty member at Tulane University School of Social Work’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy.
Disability Justice Advocate
Sue Ann Sisto, PT, MA, Ph.D., FACRM
Professor and Chair
University at Buffalo
Dr. Sisto is currently the Chair of Rehabilitation Science in the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University at Buffalo. She has been a member of ACRM for over 20 years. Dr. Sisto has served on many ACRM committees and most notably initiated the SCI-ISIG and is past President of ACRM. Dr. Sisto’s area of research is in spinal cord injury and most recently in neuromodulation. Her ultimate focus of her rehabilitation research is translation to clinical practice. This has led her to become actively involved in ACRM’s Rehabilitation Research Specification System Networking Group after serving as an advisory board member on on Dr. Whyte’s RTSS PCORI grant. Dr. Sisto recently was awarded (2021) the ACRM Distinguished Member Award. Dr. Sisto is a standing member on an NIH review panel and has review for many federal and foundation grant review panels. Dr. Sisto is also the recipient of NIDILRR, CDRF, CHNF, NYSDOH, and NSF Grants. She has also published a book in spinal cord injury rehabilitation.
University at Buffalo
Christopher T. Steele, CDR
Director, Military Operational Medicine Research Program
USARMY MEDCOM USAMRMC (USA)
Commander Steele is the Director of the Military Operational Medicine Research Program (MOMRP) at the US Army Medical Research and Development Command, FT Detrick, MD and Chair of Joint Program Committee (JPC-5) for the Defense Health Agency. CDR Steele drives planning, programming and budgeting for medical research to protect the health, support readiness, sustain/enhance performance and optimize medical treatment of Service members under environmental extremes, physical degradation, sleep/circadian disruption, blast and physical injuries and under acute & chronic psychological stress.
Commander Steele received a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in 2005. As a Navy officer and Research Physiologist, he spearheaded work to promote submarine crew endurance and reduce circadian rhythm disruption/sleep inefficiency at the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory in 2006. In 2009, Steele became an Assistant Professor at the Uniformed Services University where he directed a Military Applied Physiology course and led a field leadership exercise of 65 officers and enlisted cadre that exposed over 800 medical officers to operational challenges faced by warfighters. In 2012, CDR Steele reported to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) as a Program Officer in the Warfighter Performance Department. He provided leadership and direct oversight for a $45M annual portfolio in Military Operational Medicine, Combat Casualty Care, and Medical Radiological Defense comprising 70 research groups at over 25 Department of Defense and civilian institutions.
CDR Steele’s operational background includes three years in the U.S. Army as an artilleryman and twelve years in the Army National Guard serving in Aviation, Armor and Engineering units as a non-commissioned officer in both Nuclear Biological & Chemical Operations and Military Intelligence. Steele has deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and has supported Humanitarian Service operations in the state of North Carolina. CDR Steele is the current Specialty Leader for the Navy’s Medical Service Corps Research Physiology community.
USARMY MEDCOM USAMRMC (USA)
Cathy Stern, OD, FCOVD, FCSO, FNORA
Behavioral, Developmental and Neuro Optometrist
Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children
Dr. Cathy Stern OD, FCOVD, FCSO, FNORA is a behavioral, developmental and neuro optometrist. She is adjunct faculty at New England College of Optometry (NECO), an instructor for the College of Syntonic Optometry (CSO) and faculty for the Neuro Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA) Curriculum. Previously she was faculty for the COVD Brain Injury course and physician mentor for MIT ReDx (Rethinking Engineering Design Execution for Digital Health). She currently leads workshops in the USA, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and is always interested in teaching others about vision rehabilitation and the use of assistive technology for improved acquisition of visual information . Dr. Stern believes the eyes and the visual process are key players in prevention, enhancement and rehabilitation for lifelong success.
Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children
Mary E. Stoykov, OTR/L, PhD
Research Scientist, Associate Professor
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
Dr. Mary Ellen Stoykov, OTR/L, PhD is an Associate Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and a Research Scientist at Shirley Ryan Abilitylab. She also has a part-time clinical appointment as an upper limb specialist. She has been involved as a PI and Co-I in research emphasizing interventions for severe to moderate post-stroke hemiparesis and underlying neural mechanisms. She is co-leading a clinical trial for movement-based priming and is principal investigator on a project investigating a possible biomarker for severe hemiparesis. Her work has been funded by the American Occupational Therapy Foundation, AHA, and NIH.
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
Julian Thayer, PhD
Distinguished University Professor of Psychological Science
University of California, Irvine
Dr. Julian F. Thayer received his Ph.D. from New York University in psychophysiology with a minor in quantitative methods. Dr. Thayer has held faculty positions at Penn State University and the University of Missouri. Before moving to the Ohio State University in 2006 as the Ohio Eminent Scholar Professor in Health Psychology, Dr. Thayer was Chief of the Emotions and Quantitative Psychophysiology Section in the Laboratory of Personality and Cognition at the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Thayer is currently Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Bergen in Norway and the Free University of Amsterdam and a Research Fellow in Residence at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. He has published over 450 research papers and book chapters covering a wide range of topics including behavioral medicine, cardiology, emotion, psycho- pathology, bioengineering, research design and multivariate statistical techniques. Dr. Thayer has received numerous research awards including the Sigma Xi Research Recognition Award and the Early Career Award for Contributions to Psychosomatic Medicine from the American Psychosomatic Society, and he is a Fellow of the Society for Behavioral Medicine, the Society for Psychophysiological Research, the American Psychosomatic Society, the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. He has also received a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research on emotion in Norway and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award to conduct research in Germany. He has received distinguished scientist awards from the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, the Society for Psychophysiological Research, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.
University of California, Irvine
Santiago Toledo, MD
Physiatry Physician
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Dr. Santiago Toledo, MD is an attending physiatry physician at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. He earned his medical degree from the University of the Philippines in Manila and completed his training in Internal Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital, which was then followed by fellowship training in Geriatrics Medicine and Gerontology at the University of California Los Angeles and additional specialization in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Philadelphia with Temple University/ Moss Rehabilitation hospital. Dr. Toledo is Board-certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Toledo has been a strong advocate for rehabilitation, physiatry, and interdisciplinary care in Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders and has developed team care programs for Parkinson’s disease and other disorders at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now Shirley Ryan AbilityLab). He currently serves on the Parkinson’s Foundation Rehabilitation Initiative task force. Dr. Toledo sees patients in the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab interdisciplinary clinic and is recognized for his dedication to the rehabilitation care of people with disabilities and those living with Parkinson’s Disease and other movement disorders.
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Ann Van de Winckel, PhD, MSPT, PT
Assistant Professor
Division of Physical Therapy, Division of Rehabilitation Science, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Medical School, University of Minnesota
Ann Van de Winckel is Assistant Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy and the Division of Rehabilitation Science, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Medical School, University of Minnesota. She is the Director of the Brain Body Mind Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. The main research focus of her lab is to investigate the brain mechanisms of how mind and body approaches work to improve daily life of people with chronic diseases and chronic pain. She has 24 years of experience in body awareness-related brain imaging research and research about the mechanisms of Cognitive Multisensory Rehabilitation (a physical therapy approach). More recently her research has been geared towards implementing body awareness-related interventions in clinical trials and in brain research in adults with low back pain and in adults with spinal cord injury with or without neuropathic pain.
University of Minnesota
Wendy Waldman, BSW
Brain Injury Continuum Outreach Manager
Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana
Wendy Waldman received her BSW from University of Georgia in 2000. Wendy worked as a Resource Facilitation Coordinator for Brain injury Association of Florida until moving back to Indiana in 2013. She now works as a Brain Injury Continuum Outreach Manager with the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana (RHI). Wendy educates and presents on acquired brain injury throughout Central Indiana to build professional capacity. She also provides information and navigation to various programs and services available for individuals with acquired brain injury. In addition, Wendy assists survivors and families to access these resources and services, including RHI’s Resource Facilitation Program. Wendy serves as President for the Brain Injury Association of Indiana and also as on the board for INAPSE (Indiana Association for Persons Supporting Employment First) and the Mayor’s Advisory Council for Person’s with Disabilities. Wendy serves as the Clinical Connector for the state of Indiana in the Love your Brain Yoga Program. Wendy is nationally certified as a Brain Injury Specialist Trainer (CBIST) through the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists with the Brain Injury Association of America. Wendy serves on the board of the Ohio Valley Center Advisory Council as well as the Be Healthy Stakeholder Board. Wendy is an active member of the Brain Injury Special Interest Group through the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana
Nick S. Ward, MD, FRCP
Professor of Clinical Neurology and Neurorehabilitation
University College London
Nick Ward is a clinical academic neurologist. In 1999, he was awarded the first Stroke Association Clinical Fellowship in Stroke Medicine. He then joined the research group of Professor Richard Frackowiak at UCL, carrying out work which led to the award of his M.D. (University of London). In 2003 he was awarded a Wellcome Intermediate Clinical Fellowship. In 2008, he was awarded a national HEFCE Clinical Senior Lectureship held at UCL. Nick was promoted to full professor at UCL in 2017.
In his academic role he runs a research lab and is also co-director of ARM lab at UCL, which aims to promote upper limb recovery through understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of impairment, using approaches as diverse as neuro-imaging, brain stimulation, kinematics and robotics, and motor skill learning. To this end he collaborates widely across disciplines including neuroscience, engineering, architecture and built environments, and the performing arts.
To date, he has secured £14M in grant funding as PI or Co-I and has been the primary research sponsor for others to obtain £2.0M in fellowship funding.
In his NHS role he set up and leads the Upper Limb Neurorehabilitation service at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, the only dedicated upper limb rehabilitation facility in the world. This innovative clinical academic service has been featured in the national press (The Observer, BBC News, Sky News).
He is founder and director UCLP Centre for Neurorehabilitation (since 2012) which aims to improve the lives of people with neurodisability by delivering solutions to major challenges in neurorehabilitation care, research and education.
He is Co-editor of the Oxford Textbook of Neurorehabilitation, Deputy Editor of the Journal for Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, and Associate Editor of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. He delivered the Stroke Association Royal Annual Address in May 2019.
University College London
Mary E. Stoykov, OTR/L, PhD
Master Physical Therapist
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Melissa Watson, MSPT, Cert. MDT is Vice President of the World of Hurt, LLC and assistant instructor for the World of HURT six training courses. She received her Master’s in Physical Therapy and her Bachelor’s in Exercise Physiology from Ohio University. Melissa practices at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab formerly known as the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Burr Ridge Outpatient Center with 20 years of clinical experience in neurological rehabilitation. Melissa is a Master Clinician and certified clinical instructor with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab where she mentors other clinicians and students on their professional and clinical development. She is a recognized mentor in utilizing Pain Mechanism Classification System for Neurological Patients with Pain and Spasticity. She is practicing clinically in the Day Rehabilitation setting with a research interest in pain and applying both pain classification and MDT principles within the neurological population for spasticity. She is currently leading a Day Rehab Pain Group Committee where she is leads other Day Rehab clinicians on a research supported pain science education group that are focused on pain science education and active care treatment for patients with centrally dominated pain throughout 5 sites of care facilitating a standard for education through dayrehab clinicians in a large system of care. She is certified in Mechanical Diagnosis and Treatment – McKenzie Method. She is an instructor of the Pain Mechanism Classification System outlined in the book “A World of Hurt: A Guide to Classifying Pain” and uses both sub grouping methods exclusively in her neurological clinical practice to guide patient education and exercise prescription to facilitate functional return.
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
Jeffrey Wertheimer, PhD, ABPP-CN
Chief of Psychology and Neuropsychology Services/Associate Director of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Jeffrey Wertheimer, PhD, ABPP-CN is a board-certified Clinical Neuropsychologist and Chief of Psychology and Neuropsychology Services and Associate Director of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the California Rehabilitation Institute. He is also the Director of Training for the Neuropsychology Division. Dr. Wertheimer assists with and often leads clinical research endeavors, inter- and intra-departmental and multi-center research projects, helps to monitor clinical outcomes and quality projects, and assists with research oversight within the Department of PM&R. His clinical interests in behavioral health include neuropsychological and psychological assessment, psychotherapy, behavioral management and pain management intervention in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Dr. Wertheimer focuses a significant amount of time in research activities, preparing scientific manuscripts and lecturing nationally and internationally. His research interests include cognitive and neuropsychiatric profiles in movement disorders (i.e., Parkinson’s disease and deep brain stimulation outcomes), cognitive and functional outcomes in individuals who have sustained traumatic brain injury, psychological adjustment and resilience in the context of medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, and Cancer, and inter-professional collaboration.
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Lynn A. Worobey, PhD, DPT, ATP
Assistant Professor
University of Pittsburgh
Lynn Worobey, PhD, DPT, ATP is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh and holds joint in appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering and Physical Therapy. Dr. Worobey’s interests include maximizing function and preventing secondary injury for individuals who utilize assistive technology in both research and clinical settings. She has led studies involving quantitative ultrasound, upper limb mechanics, training in functional mobility, wheelchair quality, and the ergonomics of transfers and wheelchair propulsion. She currently provides clinical care in an inpatient rehabilitation setting. She is passionate about teaching wheelchair skills.
University of Pittsburgh
Michele K. York, Ph.D., ABPP-CN, FACRM
Brain Injury Continuum Outreach Manager
Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana
Michele York is a Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, and Neuropsychology Section Head at Baylor College of Medicine and the Houston VA Parkinson’s Disease Center. She earned her Clinical Psychology doctorate from Vanderbilt University and her Neuropsychology internship and fellowship at BCM. She has been a member of ACRM since 2012 and is actively involved in the Neurodegenerative Diseases NG, currently serving as the NDNG Co-Chair Elect and Chair of the Awards Task Force, and is a member of the ACRM Program Committee and the NDNG Alzheimer’s Disease and the Movement Disorder’s Task Forces and previously served as the Chair of the Education Task Force. Her research focuses on cognitive rehabilitation strategies in Parkinson’s disease and the integration of technology to improve ADLs for individuals with dementia.
Baylor College of Medicine
Ross Zafonte, DO
President, Chair
Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, Harvard Medical School Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Dr. Ross Zafonte, is Earle P. and Ida S. Charlton Professor and Chairman of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR) at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital as well as Vice President Medical Affairs Research and Education at Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. He is Board certified in PMR and Brain Injury Medicine. Dr Zafonte also serves as designated Institutional officer and Spaulding and has led numerous institutional regulatory reviews.
Harvard Medical School Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Stacey Zalanowski, DPT
Physical Therapist Practice Leader
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
BS degree, Boston University. MSPT, Boston University. DPT, Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Jeanne Zanca, PhD, MPT
Senior Research Scientist
Kessler Foundation
Jeanne M. Zanca, PhD, MPT is a Senior Research Scientist for Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Research at Kessler Foundation and Research Associate Professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Zanca’s research focuses on secondary complications of SCI, with an emphasis on empowering interventions—programs or services that enable people with SCI and their loved ones to take the actions needed in everyday life to prevent and manage complications of SCI. Her current research focuses on promoting self-management of chronic pain and its consequences and caregiving for people with SCI. Dr. Zanca also contributed to the development of the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System, a theory-based system for defining rehabilitation interventions that is designed to improve clinical education, practice, and research. Dr. Zanca is a co-investigator for the Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System and an active member of the Kessler Foundation Institutional Review Board. She has successfully competed for funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, Department of Defense, New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Research, the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, and the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Dr. Zanca is a leader in the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, currently serving as Member-at-Large on the ACRM Board of Governors and Chair of the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification Networking Group. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Spinal Cord Injury Medicine. Dr. Zanca received her Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science and Master of Physical Therapy degree from the University of Pittsburgh, where her research work focused on pressure injury prevention and early detection. Her undergraduate degree in Biology/Psychology was completed at Rutgers University.
Kessler Foundation