Advisory Committee

Kim Anderson-Erisman, PhD, President of the North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium (SCI), Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the MetroHealth Medical Center, and Case Western Reserve Univrsity (CWRU) School of Medicine/Institue of Functional Restoration. Dr. Anderson-Erisman is continuing her connection in clinical trails with the team at MetroHealth, and CWRU to search for implanted stimulation devices for SCI. 

Rory Cooper, PhD, Founding director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, a VA Rehabilitation R&D Center of Excellence in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Cooper is an American bioengineer and has served on the federal advisory committees in the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services. 

Patrick Crago, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Department of BME, Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Cargo's major interest are in the area of neuromechanics, particularly the restoration of movement by neuroprostheses employing functional neuromuscular stimulation. The roll of feedback and muscle and limb mechanical properties in the execution and regulation of movements. 

Jules DeWald, PT, PhD, Professor and Chair of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, Northwestern University, Creator of joint, PT/PhD program. Dr. DeWald's lab focuses on understanding discoordination of the upper limb after stroke, learning the involvement of brain plasticity in recovery, and developing novel neurotherapeutic training programs.

Michele Grimm, PhD., Dean of College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at the University at Albany. Albany AI represents a new era for teaching and research at UAlbany that will marry CEAS's technical excellence with application-specific AI expertise across UAlbany's academic and research programs, including climate and health sciences, cybersecurity and emergency preparedness.

Ayanna Howard, Dean of the College of Engineering, The Ohio State University, expert in assistive educational leadership, entrepreneurship, and diversity and inclusion. The first woman to lead the Ohio State College of Engineering. Her focus on technology development for intelligent agents that must interact with and in a human-centered world.

Paul Marasco, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of BME, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, prosthetics expert. Dr. Marasco's broad-based sensory neuroscience research continues as a principal investigator in the Advanced Platform Technology Center at Louis Stokes Cleveland Veteran's Affairs Medical Center. He is also involved with studies to understand kinesthesia.

     

Marcie O'Malley, PhD., Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, George R. Brown School of Engineering Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor, Mechanical Engineering. Dr. O'Malley's main goal of this research is to develop and demonstrate an adaptive training algorithm based on the display of artificial force cues within a simulated environment. She was named one of Cleveland's Notable Women of Technology.

Lindsay Watson, PT, CO-Founder and CEO of Augment Therapy, Inc., Lindsey turned tech entrepreneur with a passion to drive change in the rehab industry by integrating innovative augmented reality technology into treatment. She is passionate about driving change in the healthcare and physical therapy industry by automating more precise data collection, making therapy more widely accessible, and better engaging for today's tech savvy patients.

Karl Zelik, PhD, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, assistive robotics expert, and Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at HeroWear, He strive to improve health and mobility for individuals with disabilities, and to enhance human capabilities by engineering and understanding technologies that physically augment human performance and wellbeing