Policy and Professional Partners

These partners represent disciplines including rehabilitation medicine, neuropsychology, nursing, policy, and advocacy. Their participation ensures that I-HEAL’s research reflects the realities of clinical practice, provider training environments, and policy priorities that shape brain injury care.

PPP members bring insight from the organizations they represent, helping translate research findings into strategies that can be implemented within healthcare systems, professional networks, and national organizations. Their expertise supports I-HEAL in designing studies, refining data collection tools, interpreting findings, and identifying practical pathways for dissemination and implementation.

Our Policy and Professional Partners are BUSY. As leaders in their organization and careers, the PPP have many demands on their time. I-HEAL engages these stakeholders through quarterly meetings and targeted consultations where PPP members provide feedback across multiple phases of research. Partners review recruitment strategies, data collection tools, and project findings to ensure that innovations developed through I-HEAL are feasible for clinicians, responsive to patient and caregiver needs, and relevant for diverse practice settings.

Methods to Gather Feedback on Meetings and Implementation

Policy and Professional Partner Quarterly Meeting Survey

PPP members complete a short survey evaluates meeting effectiveness and ongoing collaboration. Reponses from PPP guide project activities, collaboration, and implementation. Responses also help refine meetings to increase effectiveness.

Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) Survey

Each PPP member completes a Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) Survey to identify how I-HEAL project findings can be shared and applied within their organizations. The survey explores existing channels for communication, clinician training, policy engagement, and clinical guidance to understand available dissemination pathways. Survey responses support each I-HEAL team’s dissemination and implementation strategies across diverse practice settings.

I-HEAL’s Policy and Professional Partners represent leading organizations in brain injury care, rehabilitation, research, and advocacy. These partners bring expertise from national professional societies, healthcare systems, and policy organizations that shape how care is delivered for individuals with traumatic brain injury. Through their participation in the Community Engagement Council, PPP members help ensure that I-HEAL’s research is aligned with clinical practice, professional training, and implementation pathways within the organizations they represent.

Together, these partners represent organizations that influence clinical care, professional education, and policy guidance for brain injury rehabilitation across the United States.

Doug Bidelspach

Veterans Health Administration

Kim Gorgens

Professor, Past-President of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Division 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology)

Captain Indira Harris

National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

Stephani Kelly

Brain Injury Association of America

Maureen Musto

Central Ohio Association of Rehabilitation Nurses, ARN Board of Directors

William Perry

National Academy of Neuropsychology

Angelle Sander

American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine

Kathryn Stout

Defense Health Agency

Randel Swanson

Association of Academic Physiatrists

Rebeccah Wolfkiel

National Association of Head Injury Administrators

Policy and Professional Partners play an important role in expanding the reach of I-HEAL’s work through their professional networks, organizations, and dissemination platforms.

PPP member William Perry, Executive Director of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, collaborated with the I-HEAL team to develop a four-hour instructional pre-conference workshop for the 2025 National Academy of Neuropsychology annual meeting. The workshop focused on high-quality, equitable, evidence-based brain injury rehabilitation. It also included contributions from I-HEAL investigators and a Lived Experience Partner and highlights research and innovations developed through the grant.

PPP members have also identified dissemination opportunities through organizations such as the Association of Academic Physiatrists, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses, and the Veterans Health Administration. These partnerships create pathways for sharing research findings through conferences, professional publications, clinician training opportunities, and organizational communication channels.

Through these collaborations, the Policy and Professional Partner group helps ensure that I-HEAL’s research reaches clinicians, healthcare systems, and organizations working to improve care and quality of life for individuals living with brain injury.