Research Team

Executive Staff

Rory A. Cooper, Director
Brad Dicianno, Medical Director
Alicia M. Koontz, Senior Associate Director for Research
Rosemarie Cooper, Associate Director for Stakeholder Engagement
Garrett Grindle, Associate Director for Engineering
Nikitha Deepak, Assistant Director for Research Coordination & Regulatory Affairs
Gina McKernan, Assistant Director for Data Science
Josh Marino, Assistant Director for Education and Outreach
Peter Hoegel, Assistant Director for Administration and Operations
Andrew Gryskewicz, Administrative Officer

Core Investigators

Jennifer Collinger
Jorge Luis Candiotti
Jonathan Duvall
Dan Ding
Adam Sterczala
Breelyn Styler
Mike Urbin
George F. Wittenberg
Lynn Worobey

Post-Doctoral Researchers

Brandon Daveler
Sangmi Park
Sivashankar Sivakanthan

Graduate Students

Ahlad Neti
Shantanu Satpute
Andrea Sundaram

Staff

Oluwasanmi O Adenaiye, Research Scientist
Beth Carmona, Program Support Assistant
Cheng-Shiu Chung, Lab Manager
Prithvi Das, Research Coordinator
Wei Deng, Research Coordinator
Benjamin Gebrosky, Testing Engineer
Debbie Harrington, Clinical Coordinator
Minori Iizuka, Research Biomedical Engineer
Joshua Kanode, Shop Staff
Stephen Layton, Computer Engineer
Susan Mathew, Executive Assistant to the Director
Matt Mesoros, Data Curator
Robert Powell, Machinist
William Schoy, Research Participant Advocate
Chloe Shearer, Statistician
Jessica Steinberg, Research Engineer
Agustin Urioste, Communications Coordinator
Ron Wesolowski, Program Support/IT Specialist

Affiliate Investigators
*Apply to become Affiliate Investigator

Steven Albert (May 2022 to May 2025)
Nikhil Bajaj (May 2023 to May 2026)
Michael L. Boninger (October 2021 to October 2024)
Sung Kwon Cho (May 2023 to May 2026)
Theresa M. Crytzer (June 2021 to June 2024)
Na Du (January 2022 to January 2025)
Zackory Erickson (May 2023 to May 2026)
Dan Fisher (January 2022 to January 2025)
Mary Goldberg (May 2021 to May 2024)
Janet Jackson-Coty (June 2021 to June 2024)
Guangyong Li (March 2024 to March 2027)
Amr Mahmoud (May 2023 to May 2026)
Guy M. Stofman (September 2022 to September 2025)
Yanshan Wang (March 2022 to March 2025)

Global Affiliate Investigators

Eliana Ferretti
Jongbae Kim
Ning Lan
Celia Lopes
Hisaichi Ohnabe
Vicky Tolfrey
Lucas HV van der Woude
Yves C. Vanlandewijck
Jue Wang

Internal Advisors

Anthony Delitto
Evan Facher
Walid Gellad
Rob A. Rutenbar
Sanjeev Schroff
Ali Sonel
Gwendolyn Sowa
James E. Taylor

Advisory Board

D J Stemmler Program Manager, HIV Prevention and Care Project, University of Pittsburgh
John Teague ADA Consultant, Wheelchair and Wheelchair Transportation Expert
Brad Duerstock, PhD Professor, Purdue University, Assistive Technology and Transportation Expert
Abu Yilla, PhD Assistant Professor, University of Texas, Arlington, Expert on AT, Adaptive Sport, and Inclusion
Ashli Molinero, PhD Director of UPMC Disabilities Resource Center
Al Kovach Past-President, Paralyzed Veterans of America
Mark Rosensteel President, Keystone Paralyzed Veterans of America
James Joseph, MS President, Mount Lebanon PA Veterans of Foreign Wars
Steve Hernandez, MS Director, Office of Veterans Service, University of Pittsburgh
Paul F. Pasquina, M.D. Chief of the Department of Rehabilitation at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and Director of the Center for Rehabilitation Science Research at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) Bethesda, Maryland; Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) in the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine at USU.
Urs Schneider, PhD Head of Medical and Bioproduction Engineering; Fraunhofer Institute for Production Engineering and Automation IPA
David Algood, MS, MBA Vice President, Sunrise Medical, Inc.