Dr. Pearce (she/her) is the Senior Director of Programs and Research at LoveYourBrain, a national nonprofit that delivers evidence-based holistic health programs for the brain injury community. She oversees the design, implementation, and evaluation of LoveYourBrain Yoga, Mindset, and Retreats programs on a large scale. She has trained over 2,500 clinicians, yoga teachers, brain injury advocates, people with brain injury, and caregivers in how to adapt yoga, mindfulness, and psychoeducation for this population. She has developed a range of TBI-specific evidence-based yoga and mindfulness program curricula and integrated them into 60+ community and 30+ clinical contexts and online. She recently completed a NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Dartmouth College investigating the impact of yoga and meditation for people with neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury, and has published in several peer-reviewed scientific journals on these topics. She lives in Vermont with her husband, the Executive Director of LoveYourBrain Foundation, and their three children. You can learn more about her here.

Jessica Schwartz is an award-winning orthopedic residency-trained Doctor of Physical Therapy, a national spokeswoman for the American Physical Therapy Association, founder of Concussion Corner Academy®, host of the Concussion Corner Podcast®, and a persistent post-concussion symptom survivor, advocate, and concussion educator.

After spending a full year in rehabilitation and experiencing the profound dichotomy of being both doctor and patient, Dr. Schwartz identified gaps in concussion treatment and management in the global healthcare community. Her role has been to identify cognitive blind spots for healthcare providers focusing on comprehensive targeted physical examinations, rehabilitative teams, and concussion care management.

Her vision is to facilitate collective competence across the healthcare continuum to better identify, treat, and care for the concussion patient of today while putting the "care back into healthcare" for this underserved patient population.

Dr. Schwartz hopes that by educating each other about the multi-system nature of these injuries and the scopes of practices of the multidisciplinary providers that have access to and have the ability to care for this cohort of patients, she will be able to facilitate a better patient-clinician encounter.

By speaking candidly about her experience with living with persistent post-concussion symptoms for over a decade, she hopes to facilitate learning from provider to provider, patient to provider, and caregiver to provider, honing in on the power of storytelling and collegial communication from a place of candor, evidence, and enthusiasm.

Kathleen T. Bechtold, Ph.D., ABPP is a clinical psychologist who is board certified in clinical neuropsychology and rehabilitation psychology and specializes in the assessment and treatment of individuals with brain injury. She is an Associate Professor within the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and has been an active researcher for the past twenty years with over 50 publications focusing on recovery and adaptation to brain injury. She is the Psychology Training Director for the Johns Hopkins Department of PM&R and provides supervision and training to psychology postdoctoral fellows, physiatry residents, and neuropsychiatry fellows in brain injury care. Dr. Bechtold is the President of the American Board of Rehabilitation of Psychology, serves on the American Board of Professional Psychology Ethics Committee, and previously served as a Trustee to the American Board of Professional Psychology. She provides national consultation and mentorship to professional colleagues regarding business practices as well as the legal and ethical considerations for the practice of psychology. 

Rob Landel, PT, DPT, FAPTA is Professor of Clinical Physical Therapy in the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California, where he is the Director of Clinical Residency and Fellowship Programs. He is a Board-Certified Orthopedic Specialist, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the APTA. With over 35 years of experience treating people with orthopedic, neurologic and vestibular complaints, Dr. Landel has lectured and trained therapists and physicians in the US, Asia, Europe, Australia and Africa in managing these patients. He founded USC Physical Therapy Associates, the division’s Faculty Practice, and the division’s first residency program (orthopedics). Dr. Landel has published on a variety of topics in orthopedics and in vestibular rehabilitation and has received national awards in teaching and research. His current clinical interest is the diagnostic dilemma and management challenge posed by patients with persistent post-concussion symptoms of dizziness.

Allison Nogi is a neurologic clinical specialist and graduated from Emory University in 2016 with her Doctor of Physical Therapy. She then went on to complete a neurologic residency in physical therapy at Emory University. She has practiced at both Emory University and Johns Hopkins Hospital.

As a clinical specialist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Allison was on the leadership team that created the Vestibular Rehabilitation Triage Program, which is a clinical program that uses physical therapists as direct providers, reducing wait-times for individuals with chronic and acute dizziness. Through this program, she has showcased the value of physical therapists having direct access to appropriately treat or refer patients to the most appropriate specialist. Allison also helped establish the outpatient Brain Injury Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which facilitated a multi-disciplinary treatment approach for individuals with complex brain injury. Outside of clinical care, Allison also created the Johns Hopkins University Vestibular Competency course, an online continuing education course aimed at promoting further understanding of the vestibular system and its influence on disease and symptom presentation.

Throughout her career, Allison has been involved in research. While at Johns Hopkins, she was a member of Dr. Michael Schubert’s Laboratory of Vestibular Neuroadaptation. At Emory University, she is involved with Dr. Mark Lyle’s Rehabilitation and Applied Movement Performance Laboratory. Outside of academic research, she consults with BrainQ Technologies for their EMAGINE trial, which is a multi-site trail in the United States that uses a device to potentially promote neuroplasticity and recovery in acute stroke survivors.

Currently, Allison practices at Emory University’s Dizziness and Balance Center. In parallel to clinical practice, she is pursuing her PhD at Georgia Tech with her research focusing on the influence of the vestibular system on descending postural control in both healthy individuals and individuals with brain pathology.

Emily Plavchak, is the Senior Physical Therapist with Encompass Health Northwest Tucson. She received her Bachelors in Health and Kinesiology from Purdue University in 2015, and her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Trine University in 2019. Her career has primarily been in the inpatient rehabilitation setting, where she has developed a passion for treating neurological conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinsons, etc. She has certifications in stroke rehabilitation (CSRS), brain injury (CBIS), and vestibular assessment and management from the American Institute of Balance. She is also an active member on the STOP committee through Encompass Health where she educates staff on techniques for safe patient mobilization.