Amy Houtrow, MD, PhD, MPH is a health services and outcomes researcher for children with disabilities. She collaborates with researchers at Pitt, across the country and around the world to study how to optimize the health, functioning and well-being of children with disabilities. Her PhD thesis examining the family impacts of childhood disability won an international prize for excellence. Dr. Houtrow is the Principal Investigator for the DIVERSE Collective that is investigating health equity related to children with disabilities. A detailed description of the collective's work can be found here.
Jessica Jarvis, PhD, is a rehabilitation scientist with a clinical background as a music therapist working in pediatric critical care. She works within multidisciplinary teams and uses quantitative and qualitative approaches in her program of research to address two main lines of inquiry: (1) determining trajectories of functional recovery post-pediatric critical illness for children and their families; and (2) developing mechanistic, nonpharmacologic interventions to improve PICU and post-PICU functioning. Dr. Jarvis recently completed a T32 fellowship which included testing the feasibility of a music therapy intervention to decrease stress and pain during mechanical ventilation in the PICU, to potentially alleviate the need for sedatives and remediate the psychologic sequela of pediatric critical illness.
Sarah Laughlin, PhD, uses evaluation results to make recommendations to families and the child’s broader care team that consider the child’s unique profile of neurocognitive, behavioral and social-emotional strengths and challenges.
Melody Mickens, PhD, is a funded investigator who has published on facilitators of community reintegration and resilience after spinal cord injury as well as determinants of caregiver emotional wellness during progressive neurological illness and in response to COVID 19.
Amery Treble-Barna, PhD, aims to understand the various developmental, neuropathological, environmental, and genetic factors that interact to produce neurobehavioral phenotypes. In line with this goal, she has established a programmatic line of research studying children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) and children who sustain traumatic brain injury (TBI).