Dr. Ryan’s 20+ years of clinical experience in pediatric rehabilitation has fueled her interest in motor learning and physical activity research. She is interested in understanding how clinicians promote motor learning through the application of motor learning strategies and how the interaction between clinicians and novel treatment technologies has the potential to enhance motor learning opportunities within a treatment session. Dr. Ryan has been involved in feasibility research for robotic-assisted gait training, transcranial direct current stimulation, and the use of web-based training platforms. She has trained physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and physiotherapy and kinesiology students to administer the Motor Learning Strategies Rating Instrument in a variety of reliability and intervention studies, and has provided virtual and in-person motor learning strategies education to clinician and student clinician groups. Dr. Ryan is the recipient of a Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Award (Canadian Institutes of Health Research), a Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program Career Enhancement Award, a Pursuit Award (an international award for PhD students who have made outstanding contributions to childhood disability research), a Clinician Scientist Training Program Postdoctoral Award (The Hospital for Sick Children), and an Empowering Next-Generation Researchers in Perinatal and Child Health (ENRICH) Postdoctoral Award.

Dr. Virginia Wright is a senior scientist at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital’s Bloorview Research Institute and leads the SPARK (Supporting Physical Activity-based rehabilitation Research for Kids) research lab. She is also a professor (status) at University of Toronto’s Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences Institute. Her research primarily focuses on developing and validating outcome measures for clinicians to assess and develop targeted treatment plans for children with disabilities and developmental differences such as cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury and autism. For example, one of her outcome measures, PUFI-2, helps clinicians understand how well children with upper-limb differences can integrate their prosthetic device into their daily lives. Dr. Wright and research team put measurement in practice through physiotherapy-based intervention studies, and are currently conducting physical activity/participation research involving use of innovative robotic technologies (e.g. Lokomat and Trexo Plus robotic-assisted gait training devices) within the context of motor learning-based therapy.

Dr. Danielle Levac, a 2012 graduate of McMaster’s Rehabilitation Science doctoral program, is a physiotherapist and associate professor in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Montreal. She is a researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine Azrieli Research Centre (CRA-CHUSJ) where she leads the Musculoskeletal Health, Rehabilitation, and Medical Technologies Axis. She is Scientific Director of the Technopole in Pediatric Rehabilitation, located at the CRA-CHUSJ’s Marie Enfant Rehabilitation Centre, where she leads the “Laboratoire d’innovations numériques, polytechniques et interactives en réadaptation pour enfants (LaboINSPIRE).” Her research activities focus on collaborating with clinicians and families to promote the sustainable, evidence-based integration of interactive technologies in pediatric rehabilitation.