Faculty for the PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences

Robert E. Hillman, PhD, CCC-SLP

• Director of the Interdisciplinary PhD  Program in Rehabilitation Sciences 
  MGH Institute of Health Professions and 

• Co-Director and Research Director, Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation
  Massachusetts General Hospital

• Professor of Surgery
  Harvard Medical School

• Faculty Member, Speech & Hearing Bioscience & Technology
  Program of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology

• Adjunct Professor – Communication Sciences and Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Prevention diagnosis and treatment of voice disorders; vocal hyper function; physiology and acoustics of normal and disordered voice production; objective assessment and vocal function (including ambulatory monitoring and biofeedback); evaluation of methods (medical surgical and behavioral) used to treat voice disorders; laryngectomy speech rehabilitation

Elise Townsend, PhD, DPT, PCS

• Associate Director, PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Associate Professor of Physical Therapy
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Physical Therapist, Clinical Associate, Outpatient Services
  Massachusetts General Hospital

Research Interests: Physical therapy management of children with pediatrics neurodegenerative conditions including spinal muscular atrophy and Duchene muscular dystrophy; motor outcome measures for pediatric neurodegenerative diseases; clinical trials for neurodegenerative diseases 

Yael Arbel, PhD

• Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Co-director, Cognitive Neuroscience Group
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Developmental language disorders; typical and a typical leaning; developmental changes and individual differences in feedback-based learning; electrophysiological markers of feedback processing; event related potentials (ERPs) in the study of information processing

Jonathan Bean, MD

• Director
  New England GREEC, Boston VA Healthcare System

• Associate Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Harvard Medical School

• Physiatrist
  Spaulding Cambridge Outpatient Center

• Adjunct Associate Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Geriatric rehabilitation; mobility problems; disability; secondary prevention; exercise physiology; musculoskeletal disorders in older adults

Paolo Bonato, PhD

• Associate Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Harvard Medical School

• Director, Motion Analysis Laboratory
  Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Harvard Medical School

• Adjunct Assistant Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Rehabilitation technology; wearable sensors and system to track motor impairments; robot assisted rehabilitation; biomechanics

Tracy Brudvig, PhD, DPT, OCS

• Clinical Associate
  Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Outpatient Clinic

Research Interests: The development of critical thinking skills in physical therapy students; clinical decision making; teaching and learning; curriculum development; direct access

Joanna A. Christodoulou, EdD

• Assistant Professor
  Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Director
  Brain Education and Mind Lab
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Adjunct Lecturer on Education
  Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Research Affiliate
  McGovern Institute for Brain Research
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Research Affiliate
  Speech-Language Pathology Department
  Mass General Hospital

Research Interests: Developmental disabilities including reading disabilities (e.g., dyslexia), math disabilities, ADHD - assessment, diagnosis, intervention; brain and behavior correlates underlying development and disorders; pediatric and adult neuroimaging (MRI); conducting research at the intersection of research and practice; reading fluency; reading abilities in patient populations; quality of life; cognitive skills and reading

Lisa Connor, PhD, MSOT, OTR/L

• Professor and Chair 
  Department of Occupational Therapy
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Co-Chair
  Stroke Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group
  American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine

Research Interests: Dr. Connor’s research focuses on understanding the neural, behavioral, and psychosocial predictors of recovery from stroke and community participation in people with and without aphasia. The goal of her work is to create quantitative models of post-stroke community reintegration to guide the delivery of evidence-based, targeted interventions.

Inge Corless, PhD, RN, FAAN

• Professor of Nursing
  School of Nursing
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: HIV/AIDS; biobehavioral and psychosocial aspects; caring; feeling safe; depression and grief in advanced non-small cell lung cancer; health literacy; interprofessional collaboration

Irene S. Davis, PhD, PT, FAPTA, FACSM

• Professor Emerita, Department of Physical Therapy
  University of Delaware

• Director, Spaulding National Running Center
  Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Harvard Medical School

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Examination of relationships between lower extremity structure; mechanics and injury in both walking and running gaits; retraining of faulty gate mechanics through real-time feedback to reduce injury risk; mobile monitoring of gait in community environments using wearable technology; effect of footwear on gait and injury risk; focused interested in patellofemoral pain achilles tendinopathy; plantar fasciitis and bone stress injuries

Maureen K. Dwyer, PhD, ATC

• Director of Research, Kaplan Joint Center
  Department of Orthopedics, Newton Wellesley Hospital

• Assistant Research Scientist, Department of Orthopedics
  Mass General Hospital

• Adjunct Assistant Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Identification of mechanistic contributors to the development and progression of osteoarthritis; longitudinal assessment of the natural course of cartilage degeneration in hip arthroscopy patients; objective assessment of muscle function in patients with hip disorders; development of treatment programs to prolong the health of the native hip

Susan Fasoli, ScD, OTR/L

• Associate Professor
  Department of Occupational Therapy
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Visiting Scientist
  Department of Engineering
  Brown University

• Research Health Science Specialist
  Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology
  Providence VA Medical Center

Research Interests: Rehabilitation robotics, specifically the design, implementation, and dissemination of robotic therapy trials and adults and children with upper limb paresis; task oriented training and self management strategies to improve upper limb function after stroke; brain computer interface and assistive technology research for persons with tetraplegia

Felipe Fregni, MD, PhD

• Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 
  Associate Professor of Neurology
  Harvard Medical School

• Director, Spaulding Neuromodulation Center
  Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and Mass General Hospital

• Director, Clinical Research Collaborative Learning Training  Program
  Principles and Practice of Clinical Research (PPCR)
  ECPE, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

• Adjunct Assistant Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Neuroplasticity; neuromodulation; chronic pain; motor recovery; non-invasive brain stimulation; TDCS; TMS

Joseph T. Giacino, PhD

• Associate Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Harvard Medical School

• Director of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology
  Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

• Adjunct Associate Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Neuropsychology; neurorehabilitation; traumatic brain injury; disorder of consciousness; clinical outcome assessment; functional neuroimaging; approaches to evidence-based medicine

Janice Goodman, PhD, RN, PMHCNS-BC

• Professor of Nursing
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Faculty Nurse Scientist, Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research
  Massachusetts General Hospital

• Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist

Research Interests: Women’s mental health; mindfulness based interventions; interventions for preventing and treating perinatal depression and anxiety and the associated negative effects of the mother-infant relationship and child development

Jordan Green, PhD, CCC-SLP

• Matina Souretis Horner Professor in Rehabilitation Sciences
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Director of the Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Director of Research Programs
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Speech assessment and therapy; computer-aided diagnosis of speech and swallowing disorders; speech and swallowing biomechanics; speech development; motor speech disorders including dysarthia and apraxia; bulbar motor impairments due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; facial reanimation training following face transplantation; non-invasive brain stimulation

John V. Guttag, PhD

• Dugald C. Jackson Professor
  MIT

• Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
  Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
  MIT

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Dr. Guttag's current research centers on the application of advanced computational techniques to medicine. Current projects include prediction of adverse medical events, prediction of response to therapies, non-invasive monitoring and diagnostic tools, and tele-medicine. He has also done research, published, and lectured in the areas of sports analytics, financial analytics, software defined radios, software engineering, mechanical theorem proving, and hardware verification.

Charles Haynes, EdD, CCC-SLP

• Clinical Supervisor, Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Early cognitive and linguistic predictors of literacy skill development in different languages; written language (writing) intervention for children with dyslexia and related language learning difficulties

Brian C. Healy, PhD

• Assistant Professor in Department of Biostatistics
  Harvard School of Public Health

• Assistant Professor of Neurology
  Harvard Medical School

• Biostatistician, Partners MS Center
  Brigham and Women’s Hospital

• Biostatistician, Biostatistics Center
  Massachusetts General Hospital

• Adjunct Instructor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Disease modeling for multiple sclerosis

James Heaton, PhD

• Associate Professor of Surgery
  Harvard Medical School

• Adjunct Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Faculty Member, Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology
  Program of the Harvard Division of Medical Sciences

• Research Scientist, Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation
  Massachusetts General Hospital

Research Interests: Human voice and speech physiology; development of improved voice prosthetic equipment; creation of a speech recognition platform that uses speech-related muscle signals as an input (instead of a microphone) for health and dysarthric populations; facial and laryngeal nerve regeneration; and implantable neural prosthetic systems for facial and laryngeal reanimation after nerve palsy

Tiffany Hogan, PhD, CCC-SLP

• Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Director of the Speech and Language (SAiL) Literacy Lab
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Genetic, neurological, and behavioral links between oral and written language development with a focus on co-morbid speech, language and literacy disorders; improving assessments and creating language-based interventions for the classroom; interactions between working memory and word learning; and underlying deficits associated with apraxia of speech and specific language impairment

Bradley T. Hyman, MD, PhD

• John B. Penney Professor of Neurology
  Harvard Medical School

• Alzheimer's Unit Director
  Massachusetts General Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease

• Director
  Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Understanding the neuropathophysiologies and the genetic factors that underlie dementia (e.g., Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia)

Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc

• Professor, Department of Medicine
  Harvard Medical School

• Director of Mongan Institute for Health Policy
  Massachusetts General Hospital

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Improving the health and health care of persons with disabilities

Grant L. Iverson, PhD

• Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Harvard Medical School

• Director, Neuropsychology Outcome Assessment Laboratory
  Center for Health and Rehabilitation Research
  Spaulding Rehabilitation Network

• Director, MassGeneral Hospital for Children Sports Concussion Program
  Massachusetts General Hospital

• Director, Traumatic Brain Injury Program
  Home Base, A Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Program

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Outcome from mild traumatic brain injury (across the lifespan, in athletes, civilians, military service members, and veterans); improving the methodology for assessing and identifying mild cognitive impairment

Alan M. Jette, PhD

• Professor, PhD Program in Rehabilitation Sciences
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: The measurement, epidemiology, and prevention of disability; the development and dissemination of contemporary outcome measurement instruments to evaluate the quality of health care

Diane U. Jette, PT, DSc, FAPTA

• Professor of Physical Therapy
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Associate Chair of Physical Therapy
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Exploring the relationships among processes and outcomes in the delivery of rehabilitation services and their interactions with patients’ performance and participation in daily life activities

Alex Johnson, PhD, CCC-SLP

• Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Medical speech-language pathology and the effects of communication and swallowing impairment of quality of health and life; teaching and scholarly enterprise in higher education; interprofessional education in the health sciences.

Teresa J. Kimberley, PhD, PT

• Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Director of the Brain Recovery Lab
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: To understand the pathophysiology of motor impairment and develop novel rehabilitation interventions for neurologic disorders, such as dystonia and stroke.

Janet Kneiss, PhD, PT, MS

• Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Biomechanical analysis of human movement; musculoskeletal causes of cancer related fatigue; movement control patterns associated with hip fracture

Ruth Palan Lopez, PhD, GNP-BC

• Professor of Nursing
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Dementia; family care giving; end of life care and palliative care; stigma; qualitative methods

Marjorie Nicholas, PhD, CCC-SLP

• Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Chair Communication Sciences & Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Research Assistant Professor of Neurology
  Boston University School of Medicine

Research Interests: Aphasia and adult neurogenic communication disorders; Aphasia Center Clinical Program at MGH IHP; Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for People with aphasia; nonverbal cognitive disorders; neurodegenerative disorders affecting language and cognition

Patrice Nicholas, DNSC, MPH, RN, ANP, FAAN

• Professor of Nursing
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Director of Global Health Nursing and Senior Nurse Scientist
  Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Global Health Equity
  Center for Nursing Excellence

Research Interests: HIV symptom management, quality of life, adherence to therapy; climate change and health consequences; global health issues; trafficking and health consequences

Rupal Patel, PhD, CCC-CLP

• Associate Professor
  Department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology
  Bouvé College
  Northeastern University

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: The acquisition and impairment of speech prosody (the melody of speech) in healthy speakers and those with neuromotor disorders; the design of speech enhancement and learning technologies that leverage the residual and/or developing capabilities of users

Leslie Portney, DPT, PhD, FAPTA

• Dean Emerita of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Educational outcomes; measurement of functional outcomes in rehabilitation; risk factors for falls in the elderly

Glenn Pransky, MD, MOccH, FACOEM

• Director, Center for Disability Research
  Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety

• Associate Professor
  University of Massachusetts Medical School

• Visiting Scientist
  Harvard School of Public Health

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Disability prevention and prognosis of work-related musculoskeletal disorders; work disability in older workers; enhancing the return-to-work process

Ralf W. Schlosser, PhD

• Professor, Department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology
  Bouvé College
  Northeastern University

• Professor, School Psychology Program
  Department of Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology
  Northeastern University

• Director of Clinical Research, Center for Communication Enhancement
  Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Disorders
  Boston Children's Hospital

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Efficacy of interventions in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) particularly as they relate to the role of speech output and different graphic symbol sets for individuals with developmental disabilities; methodological issues in conducting efficacy research, including research design (in particular, single-subject experimental designs) and research synthesis (i.e., meta-analysis); the effects of synthetic speech output and visual display feedback on spelling in children with autism.

Howard Shane, PhD, CCC-CLP

• Director, Center for Communication Enhancement
  Boston Children's Hospital

• Associate Scientist, Otolaryngology
  Boston Children’s Hospital

• Associate Professor, Otology and Laryngology
  Harvard Medical School

• Adjunct Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Diagnosis and treatment of complex communication disorders including application of augmentative and alternative communication systems and procedures; development of intervention strategies for autism through application of visual supports and technology 

Diane L. Smith, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA

• Professor
  Department of Occupational Therapy
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Research Consultant
  Great Plains ADA Center

Research Interests: Health policy; diabetes policy (access, disability rights); health literacy

J. Andrew Taylor, PhD

• Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Harvard Medical School

• Director of Cardiovascular Research Laboratory
  Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

• Adjunct Associate Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Cardiovascular autonomic physiology; exercise physiology; physiology of aging and the impact of spinal cord injury; traumatic brain injury; sleep disorders of physiological function

Maurizio Trippolini, PhD

• Disability Research Scientist
  Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety

• Adjunct Assistant Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Disability prevention & rehabilitation of patients with musculoskeletal disorders; injuries in compensable settings; evaluation of functional and work capacity; development and evaluation of clinical measures

Randy D. Trumbower, PT, PhD

• Director of INSPIRE Lab for sensorimotor rehabilitation engineering
  Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
  Harvard Medical School

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Diagnosis and treatment of neuromotor pathologies such as spinal cord injury and stroke; mechanisms of neural plasticity; neuromechanics of human movement; biofeedback technologies.
 

Sofia Vallila Rohter, PhD, CCC-SLP

•  Assistant Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

•  Co-Director, Cognitive Neuroscience Group
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Research Affiliate, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Research Interests: Diagnosis and treatment of aphasia across the continuum of care; nonverbal/nonlinguistic cognitive ability in aphasia; executive functions in aphasia; category learning; strategy development; neural organization of language; neural substrates of learning

Lisa Wood, PhD, BSN

• Amelia Peabody Professor of Nursing
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Director, Fatigue Research Lab
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Molecular origins of fatigue (CTRF), one of the most common side effects of cancer treatment and one that has considerable effects on quality of life, physical functioning, and overall health in cancer survivors; prevention and management of CTRF

Ross Zafonte, DO

• Professor and Chair, Earle P. and Ida S. Charlton                                                            
  Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Harvard Medical School

• Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs, Research and Education
  Spaulding Rehabilitation Network

• Chief, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  Massachusetts General Hospital

• Adjunct Professor
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: Understand and develop novel prognostic techniques for TBI; define clinical prognostic variables in TBI; understand factors that may impact the recovery process; define biological-based differences in the recovery process from TBI; establish biomarkers that can be employed in the acute and post-acute phases of recovery from TBI; focus on interdisciplinary clinical research involving clinicians and investigators from many fields; understand the role of novel pharmacotherapeutics in post-acute and rehabilitation time periods; understand both the harmful and facilitative aspects of medications frequently prescribed to persons with TBI; help to establish concerns with the chronic administration of some atypical antipsychotics to those with TBI; understand the role of dopamintergic and cholinergic systems after TBI and are presently pursuing novel laser based treatments 

Lauryn Zipse, PhD, CCC-SLP

• Associate Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

• Co-Director, Cognitive Neuroscience Group
  MGH Institute of Health Professions

Research Interests: The cognitive and neurophysiologic basis of aphasia; prosodic and rhythmic processing abilities involved in speech planning; executive functions and learning in people with traumatic brain injury