Month: August 2016

Rob Oliver is an award winning speaker and bestselling author. At the age of 21, Rob Oliver sustained a spinal cord injury while body surfing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The injury left him paralyzed from the chest down with limited use of his arms and hands. These limitations forced Rob to take a long hard look at life, relationships and success. In spite of the physical challenges, Rob determined to “live life to the fullest”.

As an author, Rob’s bestselling autobiography entitled “Still Walking” chronicles his determination to move along life’s pathway regardless of limitations and barriers. Rob is working on his second book, entitled “Still Falling”, which shares more life stories and lessons including the fact that a positive attitude won’t prevent you from tipping over your wheelchair.

As a speaker, Rob has shared his message with thousands in many venues. Thumbtack.com users voted Rob the “Best Motivational Speaker” in the Pittsburgh area for both 2015 and 2016.

Thomas H. Dahlborg is an Industry Voice for Relationship Centered, Compassionate Care and Servant Leadership. He is also an author, consultant, advisor, and nationally recognized speaker. Tom is passionate about changing the healthcare system to a healthCARING system.

He has more than 30 years of extensive leadership experience building relationship centered, patient and-family focused, empathetic, compassionate care models; analyzing and meeting patient and family expectations; optimizing strategic partnerships, ventures and teams; innovating leadership, and bending the cost curve.

Tom recently founded P.E.T.S. (Patient Engagement Treatment Services) where he calls attention to the important role of animals in health and healthcare, and their positive impact on human healing (and dying) journey..

From his extensive experience in the field, Tom is currently writing the health care novel, From Heart to Head and Back Again … a journey through the healthcare system. See dahlborghlg.com and his blogsite tdahlborg.wordpress.com

Theodore Henderson, MD., PhD, is a psychiatrist and co-Founder of Neuro-Laser Foundation in Denver, Colo.. He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of complex adult, child, and adolescent psychiatric cases, including finding answers to previously considered “untreatable” conditions like traumatic brain injury. In 2015, Dr. Henderson’s involvement with being able to distinguish between TBI and PTSD was listed No. 19 among the Top 100 Medical Discoveries of the Year by Discover Magazine. In the last six months, he has published five studies showing the efficacy of using a unique ‘neuro-laser’ to reverse brain damage caused by TBI. Learn more at www.TBI.care and please support the “SayGoodbyeTBI” campaign.

Mitchell E.Tyler is a biomedical engineer and scientist with 32 years of experience in research & development of medical devices. He is the lead inventor of the BrainPortTM Balance device, co-inventor of the portable neuromodulation stimulator or PoNSTM, and co-discoverer of the neurorehabilitation potential of tongue-based electrotactile stimulation.

He is currently Principal Investigator (PI) on a controlled clinical trial sponsored by the US Army to investigate the efficacy of PoNS Therapy for symptomatic treatment of traumatic brain injury. He was also PI on three NIH SBIR Phase-1 and Phase-2 grants to develop both the BrainPort Balance and Vision systems, and on a DARPA contract for development of a hazardous environment navigation & orientation system.

Mr. Tyler is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and a Researcher in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he teaches courses in bioinstrumentation, biomedical engineering design, biomechanics, and neuromotor control.

Stuart H Hoffman PhD is the Scientific Program Manager of the Brain Injury Portfolio in the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, and Senior Scientific Advisor for Brain Injury in the Office of Research and Development U.S.Department of Veteran Affairs.

Dr. Hoffman is the point of contact for VA/ORD on traumatic brain injury research. In this role, Dr. Hoffman has oversight for two VA TBI Research Centers and is the Co-chair of the Government Steering Committee for the VA/DoD Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium, as well as a the VA TBI subject matter expert for the National Research Action Plan for Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families. Dr. Hoffman also serves on several intra- and interagency advisory committees for VA and DoD, including the Congressionally-mandated Traumatic Brain injury Advisory Committee for the Veterans Health Administration. In addition, Dr. Hoffman is the VA representative on the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders. Dr. Hoffman has more than 30 years of translational neuroscience research experience that focused on neuroprotection and methods to promote recovery of function after brain injury.

Lyrysa Smith has been a writer and journalist for more than 25 years in print, radio, and documentary television. Lately, she’s been working as an editor and doing freelance writing assignments as she completed her first book.

Now published, her book A Normal Life: A Sister’s Odyssey Through Brain Injury, tells the story of her older sister’s severe brain injury from carbon monoxide poisoning and its impact on their relationship and their close-knit family. More information can be found on her website: www.lyrysasmith.com.