Faculty Achievements

Dawn Maffucci, PhD, ATC, Director of Clinical Education and Instructor, successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled “Determinations of Predictors for Early Program Attrition in a Professional Master’s Level Athletic Training Education Program” in December 2019.

Richard (RJ) Boergers, PhD, ATC, Associate Professor, has published a paper titled “An Investigation of Athletic Trainers’ Emergency Management Practices for Equipment Intensive Sports” in the International Journal of Athletic Therapy & Training, thus further contributing to the evidence base regarding emergency procedures in lacrosse. He was elected chair of the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research in May 2020 and was appointed to the Board of Certification (BOC) Maintenance of Competency Task Force in July 2019.

Carolyn Goeckel, PhD, ATC, Assistant Professor, received a grant from the Athletic Trainers’ Society of NJ (ATSNJ) for her study titled “Exploring Athletic Trainers’ Self-Perceived Knowledge of Non-Injury Mental Health Issues and Patient Care Practice.”

Ramona Guthrie, PhD, MPA, OTR/L, Assistant Professor and Assistant Chair, and Meryl Picard, PhD, MSW, OTR, Assistant Professor, co-authored a series of articles on rights and accessibility regarding civic engagement for people with disabilities. The articles provide a history of voting rights legislation, highlight potential and actual barriers to civic engagement, and offer resources to support participation in voting among people with physical, visual and intellectual disabilities. “Voting with a disability” and “Help your clients vote!” were published on Elitecme.com.

Lorene Cobb, PT, DPT, EdD, Director of Clinical Education and Instructor, successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled “Examining Perceptions of Leadership Characteristics in Final-Year Physical Therapy Students” and graduated from Maryville University’s Higher Education Leadership Doctor of Education Program in August 2020.

Angela Lis, PT, PhD, Associate Professor, co-authored a chapter, “Biomechanics of Tendons and Ligaments”, in Basic Biomechanics of the Musculoskeletal System, 5th ed. (2021), edited by Dr. Margaretta Nordin and published by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Richard Hubler, PT, DPT, Instructor, was elected as a New Jersey Delegate for the American Physical Therapy Association’s House of Delegates for the term of 2020-22.

Christopher Hanifin, EdD ’20, PA-C, Assistant Professor and Chair, successfully defended his doctoral dissertation titled “An Examination of the Relationship Between Physician Assistant Program Characteristics and Performance on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination.” Michelle McWeeney, PhD ’20, PA-C, Assistant Professor, successfully defended her dissertation on the “Association Between Stress and Length of Program in Underrepresented Minority Physician Assistant Students.”

Abby Saunders, PhD ’20, PA-C, Assistant Professor, successfully defended her dissertation titled “An Examination of Job Embeddedness Factors and Their Influence on Longevity and New or Established Status of Physician Assistant Faculty.”

Anthony Koutsoftas, PhD, CCC-SLP, Associate Professor, received a multimillion-dollar federal grant from the Institute of Education Sciences to develop and test an intervention for improving writing in fourth and fifth grade students with language-based learning disabilities (LLD). The program, Writing in Students with Language-based Learning Disabilities, also known as Project WILLD, will allow researchers to create and field-test an intervention through an iterative process that allows for feedback from educators and schoolchildren who participate.

Caryn Grabowski, MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, Director of Clinical Education and Clinical Assistant Professor, and her graduate student mentee, Gillian Johnson, received a foundation grant from LSVT Global to support services for individuals with Parkinson’s disorders.

Natalie Neubauer, EdD, CCC-SLP, Director of Clinical Education and Assistant Professor, completed her Doctor of Education (EdD) degree in 2019.

Stephen L. Wagner, PhD, FACHE, FACMPE, Assistant Professor and Executive in Residence, published his textbook, The United States Healthcare System: Overview, Driving Forces, and Outlook for the Future (Health Administration Press).

Nalin Johri, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor and Program Director, published his textbook Health Services Research and Analytics Using Excel (Springer Publishing). The text uses a competency-based approach to using Excel for quantitative and qualitative health services research.

Bryan Pilkington, PhD, Associate Professor, was accepted into the inaugural class of Leadership Excellence in Educating for Professionalism (LEEP) Fellows, which is led by the Academy for Professionalism in Healthcare. ■