James (JT) Eckner, MD, MS

Dr. Eckner received his M.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University and his M.S. degree from the University of Michigan in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis. His research addresses mild traumatic brain injury in athletes, including concussion prevention through neck strengthening exercise, concussion biomechanics, determining the role of reaction time testing in concussion assessment, long term effects of concussion on neurological health, as well as, in the management and rehabilitation of athletes.

Dr. Eckner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Director of Clinical Research, Michigan NeuroSport and PM&R Concussion Programs, and Director of the PM&R Resident Research Program, in addition to the Michigan Concussion Center’s Research Associate Director.

Ioulia Kovelman is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan where she directs the Language & Literacy Laboratory as well as fNIRS Pediatric Neuroimaging Laboratory. Bilingual mind and brain are her primary areas of research. Through the bilingual lens, she works to uncover the universal and language-specific influences of early language experiences on children’s emerging neural architecture for learning to read, in typical development and dyslexia. Kovelman obtained her B.A. in Psychology at Queen’s University, Canada, her PhD at Dartmouth College and post-doctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

Dr. Kovelman is the recipient of the 2023 John Dewey Award, for her demonstrated long-term commitment to the education of undergraduate students.

Dr. Mark E. Oppenlander is a board-certified neurosurgeon at the University of Michigan Departments of Neurological Surgery and Orthopaedic Surgery. He specializes in complex spinal operations, including spinal deformity, scoliosis, spinal tumors, thoracic disc disease, craniovertebral junction surgery, robotics in neurosurgery, and trauma. Dr. Oppenlander has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and abstracts, and participated in conferences at the state, national, and international level with multiple invited presentations. He serves as faculty for the AANS Coding and Reimbursement Committee and is an Unaffiliated Neurotrauma Consultant for the National Football League (NFL).

The Lawrence laboratory studies the role of proteases and their inhibitors in health and disease. Primary areas of interest focus on the vascular biology of the CNS, and disorders such as stroke; and on the development of peripheral vascular disease. Studies range from very basic questions such as how binary protein: protein interactions regulate physiologic processes to complex animal models of disease. We use combinations of biochemical, molecular, and genetic approaches to study how specific molecular interactions regulate function and then apply this information to in vivo models of disease to test the importance of these interactions in complex physiologic processes.

Dr. Andrea Almeida is Co-Director of the Michigan NeuroSport Program and an Associate Professor in Neurology. After completing a Neurology residency at Tulane University, she came to the University of Michigan to serve as the first Sports Neurology fellow for the Department of Neurology. Dr. Almeida specializes in Sports Neurology with an emphasis on the treatment of neurologic injuries in athletes, particularly concussion. She also serves as a team physician and consultant for Eastern Michigan University, University of Michigan, and USA Hockey.

Dr. Almeida is the Michigan Concussion Center’s Clinical Associate Director and a member of its Executive Committee.

Dr. James Ashton-Miller is the Albert Schultz Collegiate Research Professor and Distinguished Research Scientist at the University of Michigan Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. He also is the Director of the Biomechanics Research Laboratory. Dr. Ashton-Miller is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of biomechanics.

Dr. Ashton-Miller’s current focus includes balance, sports injury, concussion, and falls research. In the area of balance and falls, in regards to a concussion, he is studying the role of neck strength in children and has invented and validated a simple practical and portable test to evaluate recovery from concussion in and outside the clinic.

Steven Broglio is a Professor of Kinesiology and adjunct Professor of Neurology, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Dr Broglio completed his training at the University of Georgia, took his first faculty position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has been at the University of Michigan since 2011.

At Michigan, Dr. Broglio is the Director of the Michigan Concussion Center and the NeuroTrauma Research Laboratory where he oversees clinical care, educational outreach, and multi-disciplinary research aimed at fundamental questions on concussion prevention, identification, diagnosis, management, and outcomes. His research has been supported by the National Athletic Trainers’ Research and Education Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and the Department of Defense. Dr Broglio was awarded the Early Career Investigator Award by the International Brain Injury Association, the Early Career award by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, and Fellowship in the American College of Sports Medicine and National Athletic Trainers’ Association.

Dr. Frederick Korley, Professor of Emergency Medicine, completed his medical school education and residency training in emergency medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He completed a doctoral degree in clinical investigation at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Korley’s research is focused on improving outcomes in traumatic brain injury by identifying and validating blood-based biomarkers for diagnosing traumatic brain injury and monitoring individual patient response to promising therapies. He is an inventor on a patent for a panel of novel traumatic brain injury biomarkers.

Dr. Matthew Lorincz earned his MD and PhD at Wayne State University and completed residency and fellowship training in the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Lorincz is a Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan. He is Co-Director of the Michigan Sports Neurology clinic, Michigan NeuroSport, Associate Director of the Michigan Concussion Center Clinical core and on the Michigan Concussion Center Executive committee.

Dr. Lorincz specializes in Sports Neurology with an emphasis on treatment of acute concussions and the long-term consequences of concussion, as well as management of neurological disorders in athletes.

Dr. Lorincz is a team physician for, Eastern Michigan University, USA Hockey and the US Ski and Snowboard. He acts as a consultant to University of Michigan Athletics and has also served as a consultant to the National Basketball Association.

Dr. Lorincz’s current research interests are in optimizing recovery of sport-related concussion and the long-term consequences of concussion in sport.

A full list of his publications can be found here.

Dr. Pangilinan is an Associate Professor in the Department of PM&R. He graduated from the Wayne State University School of Medicine and completed his residency at the McGaw Medical Center/ Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now the Shirly Ryan Ability Lab).

His clinical practice is in neurorehabilitation following TBI, both in the in-patient and out-patient setting. He is also the chief of the TBI/Polytrauma service in the VA-Ann Arbor. He research focuses on diagnoses, prognosis, and management of patients following TBI.