Past Gresham Lecturers

Dr. Jette is a distinguished UB alumni who currently directs the Health & Disability Research Institute at the Boston University School of Public Health, where he also serves as Professor of Health Policy and Management. He  received his B.S. in PT from the State University of New York  at Buffalo in 1973. He earned a MPH and PhD in  public health from the University of Michigan. Dr. Jette's research interests include late-life exercise, evaluation of treatment outcomes, and the measurement, epidemiology, and prevention of disability. Dr. Jette is Research Director for the New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center, Associate Director of the Boston Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, and Director of the Boston  Rehabilitation Outcomes Center funded by the NIH National Center for  Medical Rehabilitation Research. Dr. Jette was Chair of the IOM Committee which in 2007 released the report, The Future of Disability in America.

Kenneth J. Ottenbacher holds the Russell Shearn Moody Distinguished Chair in Rehabilitation at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston. He serves as Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research and Director of the Division of Rehabilitation Sciences in the School of Health Professions. He is also Associate Director for the Sealy Center on Aging. Dr. Ottenbacher received his PhD from the University of Missouri-Columbia and is a licensed occupational therapist. His research interests include rehabilitation outcomes with a focus on functional assessment, disability and frailty in older adults. He has published more than 270 scientific/technical articles in refereed journals and is the author, coauthor or editor of four textbooks. Professor Ottenbacher’s research has been supported by continuous federal funding since 1984. 

Ivy Oandasan is an Associate Professor and Research Scholar with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She has conducted a number of research projects related to the development of Interprofessional Education curricula and Interprofessional Care practices. In January of 2006, Dr. Oandasan was named the inaugural Director of the Office of Interprofessional Education at the University of Toronto (U of T). She held this leadership position for three years successfully fulfilling her mandate to develop the organizational structures and strategies to implement a mandatory IPE curriculum for the ten U of T health care discipline programs beginning in the Fall of 2009.  In October 2007 she was named the provincial co-lead for the Ministry of Health’s HealthForceOntario Interprofessional Care Project - advancing a Blueprint for Action for Interprofessional Care. An active family physician who passionately tries to put emerging theory into action, Dr. Oandasan has been testing collaborative practice models within her own and other Family Health Teams in Toronto.  As the Associate Director, Academic Family Medicine at the College of Family Physicians of Canada she is leading the implementation of the Triple C Competency Based Curriculum that calls for change, preparing primary care practitioners for the future needs of the populations served. 

Edward Taub, PhD is a University Professor in the Department of Psychology, and the Director of the CI Therapy Research Group and Taub Training Clinic of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He received his doctoral degree from New York University in 1970. Dr. Taub is a behavioral neuroscientist who developed a family of techniques, termed Constraint Induced Movement therapy or CI therapy, which has been shown to be effective in improving the rehabilitation of movement after stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy in young children, multiple sclerosis, and other neurological injuries. He also has developed a form of CI therapy that is efficacious in the treatment of post-stroke aphasia. An additional focus of interest is the study of the nature of the plastic brain reorganization induced by CI therapy and the ways it can be harnessed to produce new treatments in neurorehabilitation.

Carolyn Baum is the Elias Michael Director & Professor of Occupational Therapy, Neurology and Social Work at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Baum is known for her interdisciplinary perspectives and has served in many policy initiatives which have been intended to develop rehabilitation science and improve care. She served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Assessing Rehabilitation Science and Engineering which resulted in the book Enabling America; the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research Advisory Committee of National Institutes of Health, which led to the development of rehabilitation science. She was president of the American Occupational Therapy Association where she led the development of the Centennial vision which included a major focus for occupational therapy to be science-driven and evidence-based. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis and on the board of directors and chairs the research commission of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation.

Dr. George’s research projects have been supported by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Brooks Rehabilitation, Orthopedic Section of the  American Physical Therapy Association, University of Florida, and Foundation for Physical Therapy. 

 Dr. George has authored over 170 peer-reviewed publications in physical therapy, rehabilitation, orthopedic, and pain research journals and currently serves as Contributing Editor for Physical Therapy, International Editorial Review Board Member for Journal of Orthopedic & Sports Physical Therapy, and Editorial Board Member for Journal of Pain.  

Dr. George is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association, American Pain Society, and International Association for the Study of Pain.

Karen Jacobs, EdD, OTR/L, CPE, FAOTA is a past president and vice president of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). She is a 2005 recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Akureyri in Akuryeri, Iceland; the 2009 recipient of the Award of Merit from the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT); received the Award of Merit from the American Occupational Therapy Association in 2003; and the 2011 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship Award.

Jacobs is a clinical professor of occupational therapy and the program director of the online post-professional doctorate in occupational therapy (OTD) program at Boston University. She has worked at Boston University for 33 years and has expertise in the development and instruction of online graduate courses.

Jacobs earned a doctoral degree at the University of Massachusetts, a Master of Science at Boston University, and a Bachelor of Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

In addition to being an occupational therapist, Jacobs is also a certified professional ergonomist (CPE) and the founding editor-in-chief of the international, interprofessional journal WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation (IOS Press, The Netherlands) and is a consultant in ergonomics, marketing and entrepreneurship.

Cooper is associate Dean for Inclusion, SHRS, FISA/Paralyzed Veterans of American Chair, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. John Whyte, MD, PhD is a physiatrist and experimental psychologist specializing in traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation. He is the founding director of the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, begun in 1992.

Dr. Whyte's research focuses on cognitive impairment after TBI, including assessment and treatment, with a major emphasis on disorders of attention, executive function and consciousness. In addition to his empirical research, he has a longstanding interest in the special challenges posed by rehabilitation treatment trials, the difficulties in defining rehabilitation treatments, the role of theory in guiding rehabilitation research, and the process of translating scientific advances into practical rehabilitation treatment interventions. His research has been funded by the NIH, NIDILRR, PCORI, the Department of Defense, and a number of private foundations. He has received numerous awards for his research contributions including Distinguished Academician from the Association of Academic Physiatrists, and the Moody Prize for contributions to brain injury research and practice, and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.

April 22, 2021

Elizabeth Skidmore, PhD, OTR/L

11th Annual Glen E. Gresham Visiting Professorship, Optimizing Rehabilitation for People with Acquired Cognitive Impairments

Lecturer Biography
Dr. Skidmore's federally funded research program addresses: 1) associations among cognitive impairments, mood symptoms, and activities of daily living in persons with brain injury and neurocognitive decline; and 2) interventions designed to promote independence and community integration among adults with cognitive impairments.

Skidmore is the recipient of the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association Academic Educator Award, and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine Deborah Wilkerson Research Career Award. In 2013, Skidmore was the first occupational therapist to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on early career scientists. 

Lecturer Biography
Stephen Sprigle is a Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology with appointments in Bioengineering, Industrial Design and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. A biomedical engineer with a license in physical therapy, Dr. Sprigle directs the Rehabilitation Engineering and Applied Research Lab (REARLab) which focuses on applied disability research and development.  The REARLab’s research interests include the biomechanics of wheelchair seating and posture, pressure ulcer prevention, and manual wheelchair propulsion. Its development activities include standardized wheelchair and cushion testing and the design of assistive and diagnostic technologies. Dr. Sprigle teaches design-related classes in both the Schools of Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering.

Presentation Summary
Assistive technology has been around for – literally- centuries, yet in the United States, we are still struggling with demonstrating the effectiveness and value of AT. This hinders access to technology and the development of new technologies. This presentation will frame an argument for deploying a new approach to studying AT. Using examples of current and conceived effort, the ‘way forward’ should include, the study both utility and usability of AT, assessing ‘value’ of AT, and utilizing clinically-relevant methodologies, including large datasets with accessible information.