About Me

I bring a unique perspective on the issues of repeated head impacts in sports. I’m a scientist who spent years researching concussions, subconcussive impacts, CTE, and the consequences of repetitive brain trauma in youth. I’m an anatomist with knowledge of childhood development throughout the body and the brain. I have provided medical care for athletes as a certified athletic trainer. I was a three-sport athlete throughout high school and have been competing in sports throughout my life. I am also an avid fan of sports.

I studied the long-term consequences of repeated head impacts in sports as a doctoral student at the Boston University Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Stern. I also received training in brain imaging at the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory at Harvard Medical School – Brigham and Women’s Hospital and conducted part of my research on former NFL players there with mentors Dr. Martha Shenton and Dr. Inga Koerte.

I became interested in the topic of sports-related brain trauma in kids as an athletic trainer when I cared for a high school athlete with post-concussion syndrome. I published the first scientific paper ever to examine the long-term consequences of repeated hits to the head through youth tackle football with my team at the BU CTE Center in 2015. My work has been published in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals and covered in mainstream media publications worldwide. Additionally, I have published work on CTE, a variety of concussion-related topics, and pressures on clinicians to prematurely return concussed athletes to play. I also serve on the Expert Advisory Board for Concussion Alliance, a concussion advocacy and education organization.

I received my doctorate in Anatomy and Neurobiology from Boston University’s School of Medicine. I am a proud alumna of the Athletic Training Education Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and I was a graduate assistant athletic trainer at Boston University. I am currently a Certified and Licensed Athletic Trainer.

I am currently a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I teach Human Anatomy and continue to study brain trauma in youth sports.

For news, commentary, or speaking, contact me.