People

Rachel Taitano, Graduate Student

WVU MD/PhD Program

Rachel is pursuing her MD and PhD in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Gritsenko. She is developing computational tools and automated assessment methods to quantify hand function in neurological patients. Rachel has sucessfully defended her thesis in 2024. She is now finishing the last year of her MD portion of the program.

Anna Korol, Ph.D

Dr. Korol has successfully defended her dissertation in 2025 entitled 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  has successfully defended his dissertation in 2023 entitled 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 has successfully defended her dissertation in 2021 entitled Biomechanically Inspired Assistive Technology to Restore Movement of the Upper Limbs After Stroke. She is currently a Medical Writer 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 Director of StartUp West Virginia, a university incubator and venture capital firm 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.