People

Shawn Shultz, Graduate Student

WVU MMAE PhD program

Shwn is pursuing his PhD under the mentorship of Dr. Gritsenko and Dr. Yakovenko. He is studying neuromechanical principles and developing computational tools for performance assessment and sensorimotor restoration.

Rachel Taitano, Graduate Student

WVU MD/PhD Program

Rachel is pursuing her MD and PhD in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Gritsenko. Rachel successfully defended her thesis in 2024, titled Investigating the Role of Spinal Motoneuron Organization in Human Motor Control. She is now finishing the last year of her MD portion of the program.

Anna Korol, Ph.D

Dr. Korol successfully defended her dissertation in 2025,  titled Optimizing Stroke Rehabilitation: Towards Closed-loop Phase-shifted Electrical Stimulation for Reduced Muscle Fatigue and Enhanced Arm/Hand Control. She is now a Postdoctoral Fellow under the mentorship of Dr. T. Kozai at the University of Pittsburgh, PA.

Matthew Yough, Ph.D.

Dr. Yough successfully defended his dissertation in 2023, titled Advancing Medical Technology for Motor Impairment Rehabilitation: Tools, Protocols, and Devices. He is a Data Engineer at M&S Consulting, Morgantown, WV.

Ariel Thomas, Ph. D.

Dr. Thomas successfully defended her dissertation in 2021, titled "Biomechanically Inspired Assistive Technology to Restore Movement of the Upper Limbs After Stroke." She is currently an Associate Scientific Director -Medical Payer Strategy at AbbVie and Chief Executive Officer at Neurowired LLC in Morgantown, WV, USA.

Russell Hardesty, Ph. D.

Dr. Hardesty worked with us as a Graduate Student under the mentorship of Dr. Gritsenko. He has successfully defended his dissertation in 2020, entitled Neuromechanical Tuning in Arm Motor Control.  He is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Dr. Wolpaw at Albany Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany, NY, USA.

Erienne Olesh, Ph. D.

Dr. Olesh worked with us as a Graduate Student under the mentorship of Dr. Gritsenko. She has successfully defended her dissertation in 2017, entitled The investigation of motor primitives during human reaching movements and the quantification of post-stroke motor impairment. She is now the Executive Director of Innovation and Commercialization at WVU in Morgantown, WV, USA.

Bill Talkington, Ph. D.

Dr. Talkington worked with us as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He studied the neural mechanisms of corticsopinal control of reaching using transcranial magnetic stimulation.