Team Members
Dr. Kristin Musselman
PT, PhD
Kristin is a physical therapist, Scientist with the Neural Engineering and Therapeutics Team at KITE, Toronto Rehab – Lyndhurst Centre, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto, and a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Multi-morbidity and Complex Rehabilitation. She completed a BSc (Life Sciences) and BSc in Physical Therapy at Queen’s University, followed by a MSc (Neurosciences) and PhD (Rehabilitation Science) at the University of Alberta. She was a CIHR Post-doctoral Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Kennedy Krieger Institute from 2010-2013. Kristin’s research aims to optimize the rehabilitation of mobility and upper limb movements following SCI, with an emphasis on locomotor training, as well as the incorporation of FES into task-specific movement training. Kristin is the academic lead of the Canadian SCI Walking Measures Group and Chair of the Canadian ABT Community of Practice for the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, co-lead of the Standing and Walking Assessment Tool for the Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry, an executive member of the Neurosciences Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association, Vice Chair of the FES and Technology Task Force of the ACRM’s SCI Special Interest Group, and co-chair of the Canadian FES Interest Group.
Katherine Chan
MSc, R. Kin (inactive)
Katherine is a Registered Kinesiologist and has been a Clinical Research Coordinator in the lab since 2018. She completed her BSc in Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo and her MSc in Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Toronto. Her MSc research involved the investigation of balance control and responses to balance perturbation in individuals with incomplete SCI compared to able-bodied controls. Prior to her MSc research, Katherine worked at TRI-Lyndhurst Centre as a clinical research assistant in the SCI Mobility Lab for two years.
Anita Kaiser
MSc, PhD Candidate
Anita Kaiser is a Vanier Scholar and Research Trainee at KITE-Toronto Rehab-University Health Network. She completed a Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation Sciences through the University of Toronto and is currently working towards her doctorate specializing in activity-based therapy. Anita has been Director of Research for the Canadian Spinal Research Organization since 2005 and is also a member of the North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium and the Ontario Spinal Cord Injury Solutions Alliance. Anita has mentored over 80 individuals with spinal cord injury through the Peer Support program at Spinal Cord Injury Ontario and expectant mothers with disabilities through Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s Accessible Care Pregnancy Clinic. Anita has been a strong advocate within the SCI community to help educate her peers on healthy living, promote inclusion and increase active participation in research, and address systemic barriers within society that prevent people living with SCI from living the life they choose. In her spare time, Anita models for Izzy Camillleri’s IZ Adaptive Clothing.
Matthew Heffernan
MSc, R. Kin, PhD Candidate
Matthew is a doctoral student at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto. He completed a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology at the University of Toronto. As an undergraduate summer research student, he studied fatigue and discomfort during functional electrical stimulation in the Rehabilitation Engineering Lab at Lyndhurst Centre. He completed his MSc at the University of Toronto’s Rehabilitation Science Institute. His research involved the use of functional electrical stimulation as a training intervention to improve reactive balance in people with incomplete spinal cord injuries.
Lovisa Cheung
BScKin, MScPT, PT, PhD Candidate
Lovisa Cheung is a PhD Candidate in Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Toronto (UofT). She completed a BSc in Kinesiology at McMaster University and MSc in Physical Therapy (PT) at UofT. During her MScPT, Lovisa was involved in research studying activity-based therapy for individuals with spinal cord injury. Currently, her doctoral work focuses on investigating adaptive sport participation for improving physical, psychological, and social well-being in adults aged 50 years or older living with spinal cord injury. This research incorporates components of peer facilitation and physiotherapy injury prevention strategies to optimize participation. Beyond research, Lovisa works as a physiotherapist in acquired brain injury rehabilitation. Lovisa co-leads the critical thinking unit in the Department of Physical Therapy at UofT.
Natasha Benn
PhD Candidate, PT, MScPT, BScKin
Natasha is a doctoral student in Rehabilitation Sciences, with a collaborative specialization in neurosciences, at the University of Toronto. She has completed a BSc in Kinesiology at McMaster University and MSc in Physical Therapy at Western University. She is involved in the community working as a resident physiotherapist in neuro-rehabilitation. Her future research will be studying functional electrical stimulation therapy for individuals with spinal cord injuries and stroke to improve balance.
Elina Provad
BScKin, MScPT, PT, PhD Student
Elina is a doctoral student in Rehabilitation Sciences at KITE-Toronto Rehab-University Health Network, with a collaborative specialization in neurosciences, at the University of Toronto. She has completed an honours BSc in Kinesiology at McMaster University and MSc in Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto. Clinically, she practices as a resident physiotherapist specializing in paediatrics. Her future research will involve studying balance and mobility in children and adults with non-neurodegenerative conditions.
Nicole Cesca
BSc(hons), MScPT, PT, PhD Student
Nicole is a physiotherapist and a doctoral student in Rehabilitation Science with a Collaborative Specialization in Neuroscience at the University of Toronto. She completed her Honours Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry with Thesis at the University of Windsor and her Master of Science in Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto. During her physiotherapy education, Nicole worked with individuals living with spinal cord injury/disorder (SCI/D) and developed a passion for SCI rehabilitation. Currently, she is involved in research studying activity-based therapy (ABT) for individuals with SCI/D, while her doctoral work focuses on investigating gait adaptability in this population.
Arya Raha
BScKin, MSc Student
Arya is a MSc student at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto. She completed an honors BSc degree in Kinesiology at McMaster University. During her undergraduate, Arya studied physiological responses and exercise tolerability at varying exercise intensities in individuals with spinal cord injury. As a summer student in the lab, Arya was involved with the data analysis of a project aimed at improving falls self-efficacy for individuals with spinal cord injury. Currently, her masters project involves standardizing outcome measures used during Activity-Based Therapy for individuals living with spinal cord injury.
Alumni
Dr. James Sessford
PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
James obtained a PhD in kinesiology from the University of Saskatchewan. The focus of his graduate work was the application of behavioural theory to exercise adherence among people with chronic disease such as chronic pain and arthritis. His involvement in a mobility-based exercise program for people with multiple sclerosis provided experience with assessment and training for mobility function for those with neurological impairment. He now applies his experience in both functional and psychological aspects of community mobility as a post-doctoral fellow at the SCI Mobility Lab. James now works with Dr. Kristin Musselman on a project seeking to improve falls self-efficacy for people with spinal cord injury.
Dr. Wagner H. Souza
PT, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
Wagner H. Souza is a physical therapist with expertise in neurorehabilitation. He got his bachelor's degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, in addition to a clinical specialization (trauma, orthopedic and sports rehab) and a master’s degree (musculoskeletal assessment and intervention). His research is focused on human sensory integration and motor control, mostly addressing gait, gaze and balance in the context of neurologic impairment. In 2019, Wagner obtained his PhD in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience at McGill University, which was followed by a Medical Innovation Fellowship at Western University. Then, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Departments of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, where he investigated vestibular rehabilitation strategies in projects sponsored by NASA and the U.S Department of Defense. At the Spinal Cord Injury Mobility Lab, Wagner applies his passion for innovation, rehabilitation, and knowledge translation to the development of strategies with the potential to significantly improve care for people living with spinal cord injury.
Hope Jervis Rademeyer
PT, PhD
Hope Jervis Rademeyer is a physical therapist and has completed her doctoral studies in Rehabilitation Science at the University of Toronto with a Collaborative Specialization in Neuroscience. Her doctoral research focused on the physical rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injury using neurotechnology. This area included brain-computer interfaces and functional electrical stimulation systems. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta.
Dr. Olinda Habib-Perez
R. Kin, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
Olinda completed her BSc in Kinesiology at the University of Ottawa and is a Registered Kinesiologist. She continued her M.Sc. at the University of Ottawa, which examined the adaptation of infant bouncers in different jolly jumper environments. Olinda joined the SCI-Mobility Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow after completing her PhD from the University of Toronto. Her doctoral work focused on understanding inter-limb coordination in balance control and how this was altered in individuals with traumatic brain injury. Her postdoctoral work was spent investigating the causes and consequences of falls across the continuum of care in individuals with spinal cord injury.
Dr. Cindy Gauthier
PT, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
Cindy is a physiotherapist who graduated from the Université de Montréal in 2013. During her master’s degree, she studied seated balance and postural control among individuals with spinal cord injury. In 2018, she obtained her PhD from the School of Rehabilitation of the Université de Montréal. Her thesis focused on cardiorespiratory fitness assessment and training among manual wheelchair users. For her postdoctoral fellowship, she studied the effects of functional electrical stimulation (FES) during functional activities among individuals with spinal cord injury. Cindy focused her research and clinical work on developing and promoting innovative and effective treatment therapies to improve functional capacities and quality of life of individuals with neurological impairments.
Dr. Janelle Unger
PT, PhD
Janelle is an Assistant Professor in the School of Physical Therapy at Western University. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from the University of Saskatchewan and her Master’s in Physiotherapy from McMaster University. She completed her PhD in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto and worked as a casual physiotherapist for the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Her project involved studying a newly developed training program to improve reactive balance in people with incomplete spinal cord injuries.
Dr. Hardeep Singh
OT, PhD
Hardeep Singh is an Assistant Professor & March of Dimes Paul J. J. Martin Early Career Professor in the Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto. She completed her PhD and MScOT at the University of Toronto. Under the supervision of Dr. Kristin Musselman, Hardeep’s research at Lyndhurst examined falls after spinal cord injury. She also worked clinically as a research occupational therapist at Lyndhurst using functional electrical stimulation to train upper extremities of individuals with SCI.
Vera Zivanovic
Vera received her MD degree in 1986 from the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1986-1992, she worked as a family physician. Presently, she is working as a clinical research coordinator at the Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory of TRI-UHN. She has coordinated numerous research projects on stroke and SCI. Her research involves studying the benefits of Functional Electrical Stimulation and robotic arm devices in the rehabilitation of upper extremity function in neurological populations and she has published various articles in this area.
Dr. Andresa R. Marinho-Buzelli
PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
Andresa has achieved her doctoral degree from the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto. Her thesis work focused on the analysis of postural control and the initiation of walking of individuals with incomplete SCI during immersion in water. Andresa is a physiotherapist trained in Brazil, specializing in Neurorehabilitation and also has a Master’s in Neurophysiology. She worked as a professor of Neurorehabilitation in a school of Physical Therapy in Brazil where she started the investigation of the effects of aquatic therapy on mobility of individuals with neurological disorders. Andresa’s long-term research vision is to develop optimal and feasible aquatic therapies for the rehabilitation of balance and mobility of individuals with spinal cord injuries and other neurological conditions.
David Houston
R. Kin, MSc
David completed his Master's degree at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto and is a Registered Kinesiologist. David completed his Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology (Honours, Co-op) at the University of Waterloo. His research involved the use of functional electrical stimulation in balance control for individuals with SCI, as well as perturbation-based balance training.
Dr. Jean-François Lemay
PT, PhD
Jean-François was a postdoctoral fellow at TRI – Lyndhurst Centre, supported by a research grant from the Craig H Nielsen Foundation. He earned a BSc. in Physical Therapy from McGill University and worked as a PT clinician for over 15 years with individuals with SCI in Montreal. He also holds a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a PhD in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Montreal. His postgraduate studies mainly focused on the clinical and biomechanical evaluation of individuals’ post-SCI postural control in standing.
Dr. Kyra Kane
PT, PhD
Kyra Kane is a Senior Physical Therapist in the Children’s Program at Wascana Rehabilitation Centre in Regina, SK, Adjunct Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at the University of Saskatchewan, and Advisor, Research at the Canadian Physiotherapy Association. She completed her BScPT at Queen's University, an MSc (Kinesiology and Health Studies) at the University of Regina, and her PhD (Health Sciences) at the University of Saskatchewan. Kyra’s PhD research explored individualized prescription of ankle-foot orthoses for children with cerebral palsy. Kyra's current research activities include evaluating the effects of hip surveillance for children with cerebral palsy, assessing orthotic interventions for gait impairments, and exploring the experiences of children and families with interventions such as serial casting and orthoses.
Jaclyn Dawe
OT, MSc
Jaclyn is an occupational therapist who graduated from University of Toronto's BSc. OT program in 2002. She has several years of OT practice experience, which has mostly been in pediatrics. As of 2017, she earned her MSc. in Rehabilitation Science, supervised by Dr. Kristin Musselman. Her research involved studying the use of an assessment tool in children with and without hemiparesis. She was a Clinical Research Coordinator and part-time Research OT in the SCI Mobility Lab.