Sami Barmada, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School. His clinical interests center on patients with dementia and motor neuron disease. His research focuses on the pathologic overlap between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and how we can take advantage of the convergence to identify new and effective therapies for these devastating disorders.
Dr. Bieliauskas is a clinical specialist in neuropsychology, closed head injuries, dementing disorders, and Parkinson’s disease.
His research interests include: cognitive and personality changes with normal and abnormal aging, psychometric indicators of cognitive disorders, depression and dementia, neuropsychological predictors of critical life tasks, and cognitive changes in chronic disease.
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.
Srijan Sen, MD, PhD, is the Director of the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg and Family Depression Center and the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg Professor of Depression and Neurosciences. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, completed a psychiatry residency at Yale University, and returned to Michigan as faculty in 2009.
Dr. Sen’s research focuses on the interactions between genes and the environment and their effect on stress, anxiety, and depression. He has a particular interest in medical education and leads the Intern Health Study, a longitudinal cohort study that assesses stress and mood in training physicians, enrolling over 25,000 participants from 80+ institutions. The project has produced high-impact findings across a wide range of interdisciplinary academic topics, including genomics, mobile technology, economics, gender and racial disparities, survey methodology, and medical education policy. Work from the study has been published in JAMA, BMJ, and Annals of Internal Medicine and covered in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, and other media outlets.
Dr. Sen is a member of the National Academy of Medicine Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being. His clinical practice focuses on helping physicians with depression and anxiety.
Sun Young Park, PhD, is an associate professor in the Stamps School of Art and Design and the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Dr. Park’s research areas include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Interaction Design, and Health Informatics. Her research focuses on empowering individuals to help them access, understand, and share their health-related data for effective communication and shared decision-making. Her research projects have been funded by the University of Michigan Office of Research (UMOR), National Science Foundation (NSF) CRII and CAREER, National Health Institute (NIH), and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Rebecca Hasson, PhD, is an associate professor in the Schools of Kinesiology and Public Health and Director of the Childhood Disparities Research Laboratory and Active Schools & Communities Core Unit at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Dr. Hasson has developed a nationally recognized cross-disciplinary research program that takes an environmental, behavioral, and biological perspective to understand racial/ethnic disparities in the development of obesity and obesity-related health complications in children and adolescents. Her research also aims to reduce disparities through the design and implementation of behavioral interventions.
Dr. Seagly is a licensed psychologist, and a clinical neuropsychologist, as well as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She is the Director of the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Rehabilitation Program. She received her Ph.D. from the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology. She completed her clinical internship at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University and her APPCN neuropsychology fellowship at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. She trained for three years in TBI Model Systems prior to accepting a TBI-focused faculty position in the Division of Rehabilitation Psychology and Neuropsychology (RPN) in 2017. Since joining the University of Michigan, she has started an RPN adult concussion program incorporating both brief assessment and intervention, and has been collaborating with Brain Injury Medicine physicians on further development of the inpatient TBI program, incorporating the Learning Health System for improving patient care and research on TBI outcomes. Her research interests are primarily in the areas of psychosocial, cognitive and quality of life outcomes following TBI, concussion outcomes, performance validity tests, and improving collaborative rehabilitation treatment.
Dr. Gabriel Corfas received an M.Sc. in biological sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He did postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Gerald Fischbach, first at Washington University and then at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He then joined the HMS faculty and established his independent laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital. Before joining the faculty of the University of Michigan and becoming the director of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute in 2014, he was a professor in the departments of neurology and otology & laryngology at HMS and director of basic research in otolaryngology at Boston Children’s Hospital.
The Corfas Laboratory is interested in understanding the roles that interactions between neurons and glia-the two fundamental cell types of the nervous system-play in nervous system development, function and maintenance and in defining the molecular signals that orchestrate these interactions. To this end, the lab employs molecular and cellular biological techniques as well as uses genetically modified mice. Some of the work in the Corfas lab is focused on balance disorders.
Joe Wider earned his PhD in Physiology from Wayne State University in March 2017. He received a bachelor of science in Physiology from Michigan State University in 2008. In 2021, Wider was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan Emergency Medicine Department and the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. Dr. Wider’s research focuses on molecular and translational development of neuroprotective technology for treating acute neurological diseases, including cardiac arrest, neonatal hypoxic/ischemic encephalopathy, and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Dr. Hala Darwish is a researcher in the fields of nursing science and cognitive neuroscience. Her research focuses on cognitive impairment and rehabilitation in neurocognitive disorders, such as traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease. She is proficient in basic science, translational, and clinical research. She has ongoing research projects investigating cognitive and affective functions and cognitive fatigue. She received NIH training and individual research grants and has presented her work at national and international forums. Dr. Darwish is a member of the Michigan Concussion Center and an affiliate of the Michigan Neuroscience Institute. She is the first Neuroscience scholar within the School of Nursing. She is a member of the Nursing Honor Society – Sigma Theta Tau and a fellow of the American Academy of the Nursing and other international and national professional organizations. She has authored several research papers about the topic.
