
U of U Speakers
Kristen Black-Bain, DPT
Kristen Black-Bain, DPT, is a Doctor of Physical Therapy at the University of Utah Comprehensive Neuro Rehab outpatient clinic. She is a native of Utah and attended the University of Utah, receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree in Anthropology in 2006. She went on to earn her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from A.T. Still University in Mesa, Arizona, graduating in 2010. Kristen has worked in outpatient rehab, specializing in the treatment of individuals with spinal cord injury since the start of her career in 2010. Kristen achieved her Board Certification as a Neuro Clinical Specialist in June of 2014. She is also certified as an advanced clinical skills therapist for users of the ReWalk exoskeleton. When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with her family and three dogs in the outdoors hiking, snowshoeing, and camping.
Russell Butterfield M.D., Ph.D.
Russell Butterfield M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology. After receiving his B.S. in Microbiology from Brigham Young University, he joined the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He completed his PhD training in mammalian genetics, studying genetic aspects of organ-specific autoimmunity. After completion of medical school he moved west to the University of Utah, School of Medicine where he completed training in Pediatrics and Child Neurology. At completion of his residency, Dr. Butterfield completed a neuromuscular fellowship sponsored by the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Dr. Butterfield is currently the co-director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic. His research includes clinical trials for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy, and myotonic dystrophy. Laboratory efforts are in characterization of genotype/phenotype relationships and transcriptional profiling in collagen VI related muscular dystrophies.
Daniel Cushman, M.D.
Daniel Cushman, M.D., is currently a Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellow at the University of Utah. He completed his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Chicago, IL at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (Northwestern University), where he served as chief resident. Dr. Cushman’s clinical interests include the care of acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries in both athletes and non-athletes, electrodiagnostics, endurance sports-specific injuries, and interventional spine procedures. His research interests include running epidemiology, health care ethics, and acupuncture dry needling in the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal disorders. He has been married for 6 years and has 3 young children.
Anthony Donato, Ph.D., M.S.
Anthony Donato, Ph.D., M.S., joined the Division of Geriatrics in 2010 as an Assistant Professor and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor with Departments of Physiology and Exercise and Sport Science. Dr. Donato's primary research focus is vascular aging. In particular, the cellular, molecular and tissue specific events that induce reductions in muscle blood flow during exercise and that impair arterial endothelial function and stiffen large elastic arteries in older rodents/adults.
These vascular phenotypes contribute to the age related decline in functional capacity and the development of cardiovascular disease, and can be ameliorated by lifestyle interventions such as habitual exercise and calorie restriction. Dr. Donato's secondary focus, is to elucidate the cellular pathways which confer the vaso-protective effects of these lifestyle interventions and try to activate these pathways pharmacologically to determine if this will confer some of the same benefits. Dr. Donato’s Translation Vascular Physiology Laboratory uses human, rodent, and cell models to address these questions and utilizes a wide range of contemporary experimental techniques from microRNA gene expression to ultrasonography to investigate the aforementioned interests.
Christopher Duncan, M.D.
Christopher Duncan, M.D., is Chief Resident at University of Utah in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 2006 and attended Virginia Commonwealth University for his undergraduate medical training. He is interested in expanding the scope of rehabilitation interventions for individuals with impairments of mobility and cognition using neural interfaces.
Bradeigh Godfrey, D.O.
Bradeigh Godfrey, D.O., practices at the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center and is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She graduated from medical school from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Utah, where she was a chief resident. Dr. Godfrey’s clinical interests are in amputee rehabilitation, electromyography, and neurologic rehabilitation. Her research interests are primarily focused on amputee care, including management of excessive sweating in amputees and the use of community activity monitors. She is active in clinical teaching, lecturing, and mentoring of medical students and residents in the Division of PM&R. She is the director of the Spasticity clinic at the Salt Lake City VA, where she utilizes ultrasound guidance for toxin injections to treat focal spasticity and dystonia.
Michael Green, D.O.
Michael Green, D.O., completed a pediatric internship at Good Samaritan Hospital in New York and his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Texas/Baylor College of Medicine Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Alliance Program in Houston. Afterwards, he completed a two-year Pediatric Rehabilitation Alliance Program at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. He is presently an assistant professor at the University of Utah in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He is involved in research on the brain injuries associated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment. Dr. Green is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine and Brain Injury Medicine. Dr. Green has additional clinical interest in acquired and congenital brain injuries/malformations, as well as spinal cord injury. He is involved with direct resident teaching duties through clinical teaching, as well as through didactic lectures.
H. Jonathan Groot, M.S.
H. Jonathan Groot, M.S., is a PhD candidate in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of Utah’s College of Health. Jon conducts research on cardiovascular aging at the Utah Vascular Research Laboratory (UVRL), located in the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center, and has an adjunct position in the Department of Biology at Westminster College. His current research interests center on the impact of vascular aging on blood flow regulation in older humans by utilizing the novel passive leg movement (PLM) technique.
Michael Henrie, D.O.
Michael Henrie, D.O., is a board certified Sports Medicine Physician. He completed a residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and a fellowship in Sports Medicine at the University of Utah. He is currently the Medical Director of Sports Medicine at the University of Utah South Jordan Health Center, and the Co-medical Director of the Salt Lake City Marathon and Utah Marathon. In addition to being part of the University of Utah Sports Medicine Team, he serves as a one of the team physicians for local high schools through the University’s Sports Medicine Outreach Program. Dr. Henrie’s current research interests are sports injury epidemiology, musculoskeletal ultrasound, and concussion.
Douglas Hutchinson, M.D.
Douglas Hutchinson, M.D., Associate Professor, specializes in hand and microvascular surgery. Dr. Hutchinson currently serves as the hand fellowship director at the University of Utah and chief of Hand Surgery at Primary Children’s Medical Center, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Shriners Intermountain Hospital. He also holds an adjunct appointment in the Departments of Bioengineering and Physical Therapy. Dr. Hutchinson’s clinical interests include pediatric and congenital hand surgery, surgery of the wrist and elbow, and all hand problems in all ages including Dupuytren's(Collagenase injections and needle aponeurotomy), Rheumatoid deformities, and sports related injuries. Dr Hutchinson has practice locations at the University Orthopaedic Center, University of Utah, Primary Children's Hospital, Intermountain Shriner's, Salt Lake Veteran's Hospital and also travels monthly to St George, Utah for clinic and surgery at Dixie Regional Medical Center. He trained at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, completed residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and fellowship at the Raymond M. Curtis National Hand Center in Baltimore.
Danielle Housman, OTR/L, OTD
Danielle Housman, OTR/L, OTD, received her masters of occupational therapy from West Virginia University in 2008 and her doctorate of occupational therapy from the University of Utah in 2014. Currently, she works as an occupational therapist at the University of Utah Inpatient Rehabilitation Department. She has been working with clients with spinal cord injury for over six years in the acute rehabilitative setting.
Lisa Lesniewski, M.A., Ph.D.
Lisa Lesniewski, M.A., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatrics and is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor with the Department of Physiology. Her research is focused on how advancing age and obesity interact leading to vascular and metabolic dysfunction. She is a GRECC investigator and the Co-Principal Investigator of the Translational Vascular Physiology Lab.
Dr. Lesniewski's primary research interest is to understand how aging modulates the susceptibility of the vascular and metabolic systems to the deleterious effects of obesity. Within this general research area, Dr. Lesniewski examines the role that adipose inflammation plays in inducing systemic metabolic and vascular dysfunction with aging and high fat feeding, as well as the role of adipose tissue and adipose artery dysfunction in this systemic dysfunction. To examine these interests, Dr. Lesniewski utilizes dietary and genetic manipulation of rodent models to examine whole body and in vitro metabolic and vascular function.
Arthur G. Lipman, PHARM.D., F.A.S.H.P
Arthur G. Lipman, PHARM.D., F.A.S.H.P, is Professor Emeritus of Pharmacotherapy and Adjunct Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Utah. From 1980 to 2013, he was Director of Clinical Pharmacology at the University Pain Management Center. Before moving to Utah in 1977 to become chairman of his academic department, Dr. Lipman was Drug Information Director at the Yale-New Haven Medical Center and held concurrent faculty appointments at the Yale University School of Medicine, Yale University Graduate School of Nursing and University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy. He has served as a visiting faculty member at the University of Manchester and Oxford University in the United Kingdom and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.
Dr. Lipman served on both the Acute Pain Management and Cancer Pain Management Guidelines Panels of the U.S. Public Health Service Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. He was an investigator on the original NIH-sponsored demonstration of hospice care in the United States and has been a hospice consultant, board member, and president during the past 35 years. Dr. Lipman was a founder and past president of Cancer Pain Relief-Utah and served on the Board of Directors of the American Alliance of Cancer Pain Initiatives. He has been a consultant and special grants reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, and other governmental and private sector agencies. Dr. Lipman’s research is in pharmacotherapy of chronic pain and evidence-based symptom control in palliative care.
His professional service includes co-chair of the American Pain Society Arthritis Pain Management Clinical Guidelines Panel, American Cancer Society National Advisory Group on Cancer Pain Relief, American Pain Society Analgesic Regulatory Affairs Committee, and the Ethics Task Force of the American Pain Society and American Academy of Pain Medicine. He co-chaired the American Pain Society Analgesic Principles 2003 revision committee. He also has been an educational consultant on physician pain education, guidelines, and standards for the American Medical Association, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, and other national bodies.
He has served as editor of three professional journals. He is founding editor of the Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy (indexed in Medline/PubMed), is an editor in the international Cochrane Collaboration on evidence-based medicine, and has served on the editorial boards of a dozen other professional and scientific journals. He also served as editor of the Research Update and Palliative Care departments of the American Pain Society Bulletin. He was the Pharmacology section Editor for the 4th Edition (2010) of the classic textbook Bonica’s Management of Pain.
Dr. Lipman has published six books, over 250 articles, chapters and monographs, and over 300 reviews and editorials. He has made over 600 invited presentations at national and international professional and scientific meetings.
Mark Mahan, M.D.
Mark Mahan, M.D., is a neurosurgeon who specializes in peripheral nerve and spinal disorders. He completed his residency at the internationally recognized Barrow Neurologic Institute and did fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic and University of California in San Diego. He is an active researcher in spinal and nerve disorders, publishing scholarly articles routinely and pursuing laboratory research to improve patient outcomes.
He is the only neurosurgeon in the Rocky Mountains who performs complex nerve surgery. Dr. Mahan treats nerve tumors, whether malignant, benign or related to genetic syndromes such as neurofibromatosis; nerve entrapments, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome or patients with prior surgery needing revision; nerve injuries, such as brachial plexus injuries, nerve lacerations or trauma, or iatrogenic (related to other surgery) nerve injuries; nerve pain, such as meralgica paresthetica, occipital neuralgia or other conditions requiring nerve stimulation; functional nerve reconstruction, including for post-stroke spasticity or palsy and dystonia; as well as many other conditions.
Dr. Mahan also performs the complete range of spinal surgery, including oncologic, deformity, minimally invasive and spinal trauma.
Outside of work, Dr. Mahan relaxes by getting out into the wilderness with his family. He can often be found running early in the morning.
Dominic Moore, M.D.
Dominic Moore, M.D., received his medical degree from the State University of New York Downstate, completed his Pediatric residency at Phoenix Children´s Hospital, served as Pediatric Chief Resident at Phoenix Children's for one year and completed Palliative Medicine Fellowship at San Diego Hospice/Scripps Mercy. He is a member of the Gold Humanism honor society and has been recognized for his teaching, service, and leadership. Dr. Moore is board-certified in Pediatrics and board-eligible in Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Dr. Moore is currently a Visiting Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah in the Division of Pediatric Inpatient Medicine. Dividing time between hospitalist medicine and the Rainbow Kids Palliative Care team, his specific clinical/research interests include caring for children with potentially life limiting illness, communicating effectively with parents, treatment of pain and other distress and addressing the barriers preventing effective delivery of good care and the factors influencing parental decisions.
Allison Oki, M.D.
Allison Oki, M.D., is an assistant professor in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Utah. She participates in the care of both pediatric and adult patients. At Primary Children’s Medical Center she manages rehabilitation needs of children with neuromuscular conditions. At the University of Utah, Dr. Oki manages the rehabilitation needs of adults with childhood onset disabilities. This clinic offers continuity between the pediatric and adult rehabilitation systems. She also specializes in spasticity management, offering treatment with oral medications, intramuscular injections of Botulinum toxin and phenol, and baclofen pump management. She is director of the Intrathecal Baclofen Pump program at Primary Children’s Hospital.
Russell Richardson, Ph.D.
Russell Richardson, Ph.D., joined the University of Utah in 2007 with joint appointments in the Department of Internal Medicine - Division of Geriatrics, and the Department of Exercise and Sport Science. He became a tenured professor in each department in 2010. Dr. Richardson directs the Utah Vascular Research Laboratory (UVRL) located at the Salt Lake VA Medical Center. He has had a long standing interest in oxygen transport from air to tissue, with a current research interest revolving around the link between vascular and skeletal muscle function. One of the many potential candidates, upon which we are focusing considerable attention, is the role of oxidative stress in the regulation/dysregulation of skeletal muscle metabolism and vascular control.
Marc Rosello, OT
Marc Rosello, OT, is originally from Scotch Plains New Jersey, but moved to North Miami Beach, Florida in 1979. He grew up playing football and baseball, enjoying the year round warmth. This interest led him to continue playing in college, and he graduated from Augustana College in 1993 with a degree in Biology. He pursued his Masters degree in Occupational Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis Missouri, married his wife of 18 years, and eventually moved to Salt Lake City in 1997. The mountains have been a significant influence in sport, enjoying both snowboarding with his 12year old daughter and racing triathlons for the past 14 years. Marc has qualified for and finished the Hawaii Ironman World Championships in both 2012 and 2013. He has been working for the University of Utah Hospital, at the Sugarhouse Rehabilitation Clinic, specializing in stroke and brain injury rehabilitation, and running the Driving Rehabilitation Program for the last 15+ years.
McKenzie Ross, OT
McKenzie Ross, OT, is a graduate of The University of Tennessee with a major in psychology and concentration in Occupational Therapy. Mckenzie attended graduate school at Tennessee State University in Nashville, graduating with a Masters in Occupational Therapy in December of 2013. Mckenzie currently is working at The University of Utah Hospital as an OT in the inpatient rehabilitation unit.
Sarina Kay Sinclair, Ph.D.
Sarina Kay Sinclair, Ph.D., has been involved in orthopaedic research for over 15 years with a focus on bone response to implant materials and the development of mesenchymal stem cell-based bone graft systems. Since joining the University of Utah she has been focused on the safe introduction of osseointegrated (OI) implants for amputees in the United States. Dr. Sinclair is currently managing an upcoming clinical trial for an OI design that has been funded by the Department of Veteran Affairs and industry sponsor DJO Surgical. Her other research interest include the skeletal attachment of devices in the spine and working to improve surgical techniques for spinal fusion. Her memberships include the Orthopaedic Research Society and the Society for Biomaterials.
Michelle DeLeone Thomas M.Ed. CCC-SLP
Michelle DeLeone Thomas M.Ed. CCC-SLP, a native of Atlanta, Georgia received her bachelor’s Degree in Interrelated Special Education at the University of Georgia. Later, she graduated from Georgia State University with a Master’s degree in Communication disorders. Michelle is a Utah State Licensed in Speech-Language Pathology and holds a Certificate of Clinical Competences from the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA). Before recently joining the University of Utah Hospital’s inpatient rehabilitation team, she worked as a speech-language pathologist at Shepherd Center Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Rehabilitation in Atlanta, Georgia. There, her interest in dysphagia, aphasia and brain injury were sparked. During that time, she served as a volunteer for the Atlanta Aphasia Association, Shepherd stroke education team and helped to develop new programs and processes in the hospital. Michelle plans to continue her professional growth in the areas of communication disorders/dysphagia and betterment of the speech pathology services in inpatient rehabilitation.
Lindsay Williams, OT
Lindsay Williams, OT, is a graduate from University of Utah with a bachelors of science in International Studies with an emphasis in global health and a minor in leadership studies. Lindsay completed her masters in occupational therapy from the University of Utah in May of 2014. Lindsay currently works at the University of Utah Hospital in inpatient rehabilitation as an occupational therapist on the spinal cord injury team.