RRTC Faculty and Staff

Here you can find an overview of the individuals who make up the IDEAL RRTC's faculty and staff:

Center PI's and Co PI's

Michelle A. Meade, PhD (Center Director / Co-Project Director R2-a)

Michelle Meade

A professor in the U-M Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) within the School of Medicine, a practicing rehabilitation psychologist, Director of the TIKTOC RERC and the Collaboratory for Technology, Health and Independence, (CTHI) affiliated faculty with the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and the co-chair for Michigan Medicine’s Disability Council. 

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Philippa Clarke, PhD, MS (Center Co-PI / Project Director R3)

A Professor of Epidemiology in the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health and Research Professor in the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. She is a social epidemiologist and social gerontologist with substantive and methodological expertise in the role of the environment in disability and aging.
Robyn Rontal, J.D., MHSA (Co-PI / Project Director for project R1c)
Robyn Rontal

Leads the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation’s (CHRT) policy, analytics and consulting projects, with over 30 years of experience working with various stake1holders across the healthcare marketplace; providers, purchasers, insurers, consumers and policy-makers.

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Co-Investigators

Clive D’Souza, PhD (Center Co-I / Project Director R5)

Clive DSouza photo

An Assistant Professor in UM Industrial and Operations Engineering, a core faculty member of the UM Center for Ergonomics and the Center for Occupational Health and Safety Engineering and Director of the Inclusive Mobility Research Laboratory, and affiliated faculty with the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

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Elham Mahmoudi, PhD (Co-director R1 / Project Director R4b)

Elham Mahmoudi photo

An Assistant Professor in UM Department of Family Medicine and a health economist, and affiliated faculty with the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. Her research focuses on reducing racial/ethnic and disability-related disparities in access to care and health outcomes.

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Michael McKee, MD, MPH (Director R4a)

Michael McKee

An Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and a family medicine physician with a hearing loss disability who has witnessed the impact of inaccessible health care, inadequate health literacy, poor health communication, and ongoing health inequities among people with disabilities. Dr. McKee is also affiliated faculty with the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

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Shan ParkerPhD (Co-I on R2b and Development Core) 

Shan Parker photo

An Associate Professor of Health Education and the Director of the Masters of Public Health Program at UM-Flint. She focuses on racial and ethnic populations and health disparities research using community based participatory research principles.

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Mark Peterson, PhD (Co-Director, R1a & b)

An Assistant Professor in UM PMR and an active member in the UM Neuroscience Graduate Program, the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, Michigan Center of the Demography of Aging, and the Michigan Institutes for Data Science.

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Amy Pienta, PhD (Director of Data Sharing Core)

Amy Pienta photo

Acquisitions Director at the University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) She is also a research affiliate of the University of Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging and the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. At ICPSR, she oversees new data acquisitions and directs several large data archiving projects. 

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Melissa Riba, MA (Director, R2c)

Melissa Riba photo

The Research and Evaluation Director at CHRT, developing and implementing practical and applied methods and research that can inform health and human service policy and help stakeholders understand how to improve programming to improve health outcomes.

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Rie Suzuki, PhD (Director, R2b)

Rie Suzuki photo

An Associate Professor of Public Health and Health Sciences at the UM-Flint Campus, and affiliated faculty with the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. She is a behavioral scientist and has extensive background in needs assessment, the development of theory-based health promotion programs and program evaluation for adults and aging with physical disabilities.

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Additional Key Staff

Neil Kamdar, MA

Neil Kamdar photo

Lead Statistician, Data & Methods Hub, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI). Mr. Kamdar is lead statistician jointly appointed with IHPI and the U-M Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He provides analytic expertise, mentoring, and collaboration on several projects in health services research. He has experience working with Clinical Quality Initiative (CQI) data, large administrative claims such as Medicare, Optum, and Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), and other institutional data sources for analysis and publication.

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Donna Riccio Omichinski, BA, CCRP (Center Coordinator)

Donna Omichinski photo

Donna has more than fifteen years of experience as research project manager with the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She is currently the center coordinator for the University of Michigan’s Rehabilitation Research Training Center (RRTC) and Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC).

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Lisa Reber, PhD 

Lisa Reber

A Research Fellow in the Center for Disability Health and Wellness in the U-M Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R). She comes to Disability Studies from a Justice Studies background focused on low-wage migrant workers. Her research on socio-spatial marginalization and the challenges of access and mobility experienced by this population translates well to the disability paradigm. She is conducting the qualitative components of the R2 project.

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Shane Redman

Shane Redman is the ADDEP Archive Manager, with responsibilities including project administration and data processing oversight, the creation of educational materials and other resources for data users, and assistance to researchers who want to share data through ADDEP. Mr. Redman received his BA from the University of Michigan, MPA from Eastern Michigan University, and MA from the University of Pittsburgh. He is also currently a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh in political science. His research focuses on the political representation of historically marginalized groups.

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Sheryl Ulin, PhD, CPE

Sheryl Ulin photo

A Research Program Officer for the UM Center for Ergonomics and the Continuing Education and Outreach Director for the UM Center for Occupational Health and Safety Engineering. For the IDEAL RRTC, Dr. Ulin’s responsibilities will include assisting Dr. D’Souza on project R5 and the Center’s leadership team on dissemination and knowledge translation activities.

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UM/CHRT/IHPI Leadership

 Gail Campanella, MBA, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation

Gale Campanella photo

The Managing Director, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI). As the chief operating officer of IHPI, Ms. Campanella works closely with the IHPI Director and faculty leadership team in developing strategy and organizational priorities, overseeing all operations of the Institute, and hiring, and managing IHPI staff.

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Linda Grosh, FACHE, MHSA - Chief Department Administrator, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Michigan Medicine

Linda Grosh Photo

Linda Grosh, FACHE, MHSA, BS, is the clinical department administrator (CDA) for Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. She oversees all departmental financial operations, including the medical school finances relating to faculty clinical, research and educational issues, and the hospital finances including the performance of the inpatient services and the ancillary services.

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S. Jack Hu, PhD, Vice President for Research, University of Michigan

S Jack Hu photo

Dr. Hu has overall responsibility for nurturing the excellence and integrity of research across the entire campus. He oversees the U-M Office of Research, which fosters interdisciplinary research, develops and implements research policy, provides central administrative services in support of faculty research, innovation, and economic outreach, and manages activities related to compliance and the responsible conduct of research.

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Edward Hurvitz, MDProfessor and Chair, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Michigan Medicine

Edward Hurvitz

Dr. Hurvitz has been involved in the diagnosis and management of pediatric onset disabilities, especially cerebral palsy (CP) for over 25 years. His research focuses on health and fitness, health-related outcomes, and transition to adulthood. His work with CP has led to membership on the Children’s Motor Study Group, an NINDS/NIH sponsored group of experts in the field.

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Marianne Udow-Phillips,MHSA, Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation

Marianne_Udow_Phillips

The Executive Director of the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation (CHRT) at the University of Michigan. CHRT is an independent 501(c)(3) impact organization with a mission to advance evidence-based care deliver, improve population health and expand access to care. She is also a lecturer of public health at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and affiliated faculty with the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

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Philip Zazove, MD, the George A. Dean, M.D. Chair of Family Medicine

Philip Zazove

A clinical and research expert in disability health, specifically, health services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals. He is Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan, and has been active in clinical, educational, research and outreach activities.  He also serves on national boards and committees related to this topic, including serving as the current Vice President of the international Group Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Loss and serves on the Advisory Board for the National Center for Deaf Health Research.

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Advisory Panel / Community Partner 

Alex Gossage, Interim Executive Director, Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living (Ann Arbor CIL) and Advisory Panel Member for IDEAL RRTC.

Alex Gossage

The mission of the Ann Arbor CIL is to provide hope, offer support, and transform lives with dedication to the success of children, youth, adults, and seniors with disabilities at home, at school, at work and in the community. Since 1976, they have assisted people with disabilities in overcoming barriers and meeting their goals in areas including assistance accessing community resources; community advocacy; peer support; recreation & arts programming, and transitions from nursing facilities back into the community.  In addition to the Ann Arbor office, the Ann Arbor CIL has an affiliate location, the Monroe Center for Independent Living, in neighboring Monroe County and a staffing presence in Livingston County. 

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