Dr. Barstow is an associate professor and director of the Graduate Certificate in Low Vision Rehabilitation. Her current research centers on vision impairment and occupational performance, environmental accessibility and physical activity participation for persons with disabilities.

Dr. Buford’s research focus is in preserving the health and independence of older adults through interdisciplinary research broadly related to the prevention of age-related physical disability. He serves as Principle Investigator or co-PI for numerous clinical research studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, and is a co-investigator on the LIFE study, a Phase 3, randomized clinical trial which revealed that long-term, structured physical activity can reduce the incidence of mobility disability among mobility-limited older adults.

Dr. Christy’s research focuses on developing and testing outcome measures and interventions to improve gaze stability, balance and gross motor function in children with vestibular related impairments. Dr. Christy collaborates with researchers in the School of Optometry as well as clinicians in audiology and PT at Children’s of Alabama. Dr. Christy’s lab, the Vestibular and Oculomotor Research Clinic, is located in the School of Optometry.

Professor Eberhardt joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UAB in 1999, after working in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UAB since 1991. His current research focuses on orthopedic and injury biomechanics, as well as medical and rehabilitation device design and commercialization. He is the director of the Master of Engineering with a Concentration in Design and Commercialization.

Dr. Han is an assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at UAB. She started working at UAB in September 2019. Dr. Han’s research interests are psychological and behavioral interventions for caregivers of older adults (e.g., family caregivers of people with dementia), older adults, and people with neurological disorders.

Dr. Hurt’s research is interested in investigating neuromechanical factors that negatively impact mobility by older adults and those aging with neurological dysfunction such as individuals post stroke and those with Parkinson’s Disease. His research involves both a mechanistic approach to understand factors that negatively impact mobility and then the development and testing of novel interventions that can positively impact mobility in these populations.

Dr. Jenkins has been privileged to be an occupational therapist for more than three decades and, for the majority of that, he has been dedicated to supporting and empowering people with the most severe disabilities to find purpose and meaning in their daily lives, using technology as a means of empowerment. For the past 14 years, his focus has shifted to facilitating the next generation of occupational therapists to be successful in their academic journey to become the occupational therapist they strive to be. Dr. Jenkins started his academic career in an undergraduate program in the United Kingdom and have now continued it in a masters’ level program here at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Byron Lai, MS, PhD, Former Trainee (Dept. of Physical Therapy). Funding Sources: NIH/NICHD, NIH/CCTS, AACPDM, CEDHARS. Dr. Lai is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Pediatrics at UAB and Children’s Hospital of Alabama. Dr. Lai’s research interests are focused on incorporating consumer-available technologies into health-enhancing therapeutic exercise programs to improve health, function, and well-being among children with disabilities.

Donald H. Lein Jr., PT, PhD is an Associate Professor and the Director of Continuing Education and Community Outreach in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He continues to practice part time in the UAB Osteoporosis Prevention and Treatment Center at the Kirklin Clinic. His research interests include developing and implementing physical therapy interventions to improve the care of individuals with osteoporosis and osteoporosis-related fractures, exploring the role of physical therapists in providing health promotion and education while providing typical physical therapy services, and developing and testing educational strategies to enhance Doctor of Physical Therapy education. He has published manuscripts in peer -review journals and presented nationally and internationally concerning his research interests.

Efforting.

Efforting.

Dr. Mehta is a health services researcher with several years of experience in biostatistics and data mining. He is an Associate Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). His training included PhD in Biostatistics and Masters in Electrical Engineering. He leads the NIH-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center Design Analytics Core. His research projects include from large randomized controlled trials related to telehealth to analysis of large existing datasets. Dr. Mehta’s research interest span from clinical, epidemiological and health services related scientific inquiries in topics related to obesity, cardiometabolic conditions, disability, and rehabilitation. One of his recent line of research is in the area of healthcare quality improvement in obesity and diabetes care.

David M. Morris, PT, PhD, FAPTA is Professor and Chair of the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where, since 1991, he has taught in the entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy, Doctor of Science in Physical Therapy and PhD in Rehabilitation Science degree programs. Morris earned a BS in physical therapy from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; a MS in physical therapy education and a PhD in health education/promotion from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is also a Credentialed Fellowship Graduate from the APTA Education Leadership Institute Fellowship. He has been a member of the UAB Constraint Induced (CI) Therapy Research Group since 1994 and has participated in multiple research projects aimed at developing the approach and examining its influence on extremity use following stroke and other neurologic disorders.

The primary focus of the MSMT lab is directed towards determining the peripheral and central mechanisms of spinal manual therapy (i.e. spinal manipulation/spinal mobilization) for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain and/or related disability. For our basic studies, we use a variety of animal models, custom-made spinal manual therapy devices, behavioral and electrophysiological methods in our laboratory to investigate translationally relevant research questions with the ultimate goal of improving clinical care. For our clinical studies, we investigate changes in biological markers (i.e. inflammatory cytokines) related to spinal manual therapy.

Dr. Rimmer directs two U.S. technology-driven federally funded centers, the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (funded by CDC since 1999), and the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Interactive Exercise Technologies and Exercise Physiology for People with Disabilities (funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research since 2002). His research interests explore the use of new and emergent technologies in developing biobehavioral and environmental strategies to promote beneficial physical activity and healthful weight management in adults with physical disabilities.

Dr. Tucker is an assistant professor in the Master of Science in UAB Occupational Therapy program with a background in pediatrics and community-based practice. She has worked with clients in a variety of pediatric settings, including the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Dr. Tucker is a certified infant and child massage instructor and has training in pediatric constraint therapy through her past employment in the Civitan-Sparks Clinic at UAB. Prior to joining the faculty at UAB, Dr. Tucker was the Program Director of the Occupational Therapy Assistant program at Brown Mackie College in Birmingham, Alabama.

Research interests are related to the cycle of incarceration and the role of occupational therapy with at-risk populations.

Dr. Wilroy’s research philosophy is to conduct research that centers on the needs of the patient and improves the capacity of clinicians to recommend specific exercise routines. The focus of his research is on the psychosocial aspects of adherence to exercise trials among people with physical disabilities. His current research projects include: a) recruiting PM&R patients into a large randomized controlled trial of a home-based exercise intervention, and b) identifying decisions points for piloting a sequential multiphase assignment randomized trial of an exercise and behavioral coaching intervention for people with physical disabilities.

Dr. Wingo is an Associate Professor in the UAB Department of Occupational Therapy, and the Principal Investigator and Director of the Health Behavior and Disability lab. She completed her PhD in the department of Health Behavior in the UAB School of Public Health and completed postdoctoral fellowships with the UAB Department of Nutrition Sciences and the UAB Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education (COERE). Dr. Wingo is a biobehavioral researcher with expertise in dietary behavior and the development of dietary interventions for people with physical disabilities and complex medical conditions. People with disabilities report higher rates of unhealthy behaviors including poor dietary patterns and physical inactivity, and these behaviors have been linked to higher rates of disability and poor disease outcomes. Her lab has three overarching goals: 1. To explore the impact of diet on the progression of neurodegenerative diseases including MS. 2. To determine how diet impacts secondary conditions and physical function related to mobility disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases, and 3. To develop innovative behavioral interventions to help individuals with a disability improve adherence to healthy dietary behaviors.

Dr. Yuen is a professor and the Director of Research in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He received his professional training in occupational therapy at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. His doctoral training at the University of Florida in Gainesville focused on Research, Evaluation, and Measurement Methodology. Dr. Yuen has served as a principal investigator since 2002 and has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for four different grant projects, as well as several awards from federal government and private foundations. His recent research involves partnering with the UAB Arts in Medicine program to study the use of arts, including theater, expressive emotional writing, storytelling, magic, dance and movement, and exergaming, as interventions to improve health and quality of life in people with chronic conditions. Dr. Yuen’s research interests also include investigating the impact of urban park visitations on mental health.