2025 Future Trends in mRehab Speaker Bios

Michael L. Jones, PhD, FACRM (he/him/his)

Position: Director Emeritus

Organization: Virginia Crawford Research Institute, Shepherd Center

Role: Moderator

Biography: Mike is director emeritus of the Virginia C. Crawford Research Institute and former vice president for research and technology (1996-2021) at Shepherd Center). He is also principal investigator of three Federally-funded research and development projects addressing: 1) peer mentoring interventions to support successful community re-entry for individuals with disabilities resulting from traumatic brain or spinal cord injuries; 2) development and validation of mobile (mHealth) “apps” to support health and wellness outcomes; and 3) research and development of information and communication technologies for mobile delivery of medical rehabilitation (mRehab) interventions.

Mike received his Ph.D. in child psychology (with an emphasis in applied behavior analysis) from the University of Kansas, where he also served as associate director of the Research and Training Center on Independent Living from 1983 to 1988.

Prior to joining Shepherd Center, he was executive director of the Center for Universal Design and associate professor of design and technology at North Carolina State University.

Mike’s professional interests address the design and management of programs and services that promote independent living and full inclusion of people with disabilities. His research includes applications of universal design, information and communication technologies, behavior management strategies, and independent living philosophy to promote health, wellness, and community participation.

David J. Reinkensmeyer, PhD, (he/him/his)

Position: Professor

Organization: University of California at Irvine

Role: Moderator

Biography: David Reinkensmeyer is Professor in the Departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of California at Irvine. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, studying robotics and the neuroscience of human movement. He carried out postdoctoral studies at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago developing robotic devices for rehabilitation therapy after stroke. He became an assistant professor at U.C. Irvine in 1998, establishing a research program that develops technologies for movement training and models for computational neurorehabilitation. He is co-inventor of the T-WREX upper extremity training device, which was commercialized as ArmeoSpring, and the MusicGlove finger training device. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation, co-director of the NIDILRR COMET Robotic Rehabilitation Engineering Center, co-editor of the forthcoming book Neurorehabilitation Technology, 3rd edition, and a fellow of the AIMBE.

Amanda R. Rabinowitz, PhD (she/her/hers)

Position: Assocate Director

Organization: Moss Rehabilition Research Institute

Role: Researcher

Biography: Dr. Rabinowitz is interested in chronic brain injury outcomes across the spectrum of TBI severity. In particular, her work focuses on the psychosocial factors that confer resilience after brain injury, with an interest in self-regulation as a key mechanism. A number of Dr. Rabinowitz’s projects leverage mobile technology to augment brain injury assessment and intervention. She works with local and national collaborators on studies of long-term brain injury outcomes, including neuroimaging studies to elucidate neuropathological substrates of chronic and neurodegenerative effects of brain injury, and large epidemiological studies of participation in contact sports as a risk factor for cognitive and emotional dysfunction later in life.

Deborah Backus, phd, facrm

Position: VP or Research and Innovation

Organization: Shepherd Center

Role: Presenter

Dr. Deborah Backus is a grant-funded researcher, physical therapist, and educator with 40 of experience in the neurorehabilitation field. She is the Vice President of Research and Innovation and Director of the Virginia C. Crawford Research Institute at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia. At Shepherd Center and within the rehabilitation medicine field, she is known for her innovative approaches to facilitating clinician involvement in research activities, translation of meaningful evidence into practice, uptake of technology into clinical programs, and incorporation of standardized outcome assessment into routine clinical practice to better guide clinical care.

Dr. Backus’ research focuses on investigation of models of care and rehabilitation interventions to facilitate greater function, health and quality of life in people with MS, particularly those with severe disability. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute on Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), and the National MS Society. She is currently co-principal investigator for one of the largest PCORI-funded exercise trials in MS evaluating the comparative effectiveness of an evidence-based exercise program delivered in a facility or in the home. Her mission is to empower patients, students, and colleagues to achieve their greatest potential, and to advance rehabilitation science and care for people with disability due neurological injury or disease.

Dr. Backus is a fellow and immediate past president of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) and serves as one of the founding editors for the Archives of Rehabilitation Research & Clinical Translation, both of which serve the rehabilitation community to empower people with disability to live full and healthy lives.

John T. Morris, PhD, FACRM (he/him/his)

Position: Clinical Research Scientist

Organization: Shepherd Center

Role: Moderator

Biography: John Morris is a clinical research scientist at Shepherd Center, conducting research and development of assistive and rehabilitation technologies and user needs and usability of technology product and services for people with all types of disability. He leads several R&D projects for mobile software applications and clinical interventions using mainstream consumer technology platforms. John is the Director of the User Experience Lab/Accessibility User Research Collective (AURC), an innovative program to provide accessibility and usability research and testing services to consumer electronics and other consumer products companies. The AURC/UX Lab grew out of NIDILRR- funded RERC grants on R&D for assistive and accessible technology. Additionally, John serves as operations director and project director for the mRehab RERC and the App Factory DRRP grants. These projects have resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, regulatory filings, and training and education curricula. Additionally, John has served as co-investigator for two collaborative projects with Kessler Foundation on clinical evaluation of caregiving skills and development of online training materials for paid caregivers of people with spinal cord injury. Prior to joining Shepherd Center, John worked for Oracle Corporation as a senior product development manager, designing and validating products and services, and visiting assistant professor at the University of Connecticut. John has served in leadership roles for the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM), including as founding co- chair of the Technology Networking Group and co-chair of ACRM’s Clinicians and Industry Collaborative Task Force.