Episode Details

NB. Moderate noise reduction and post processing was used due to ambient noise in the corridor next to the podcast booth.

Back to the Future: Celebrating 80 Years of Science at AACPDM and Envisioning an Even Brighter Future

Diane is a recently retired tenured Senior Investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is internationally recognized for her research which focuses muscle strengthening and on the design of device-augmented interventions to promote activity, mobility and neuroplasticity in infants and children with cerebral palsy, including a pediatric strengthening exoskeleton and a smart harness to promote infant mobility. 

Diane pioneered the use of mobile brain imaging technologies to evaluate cortical activity during functional motor tasks and for neurofeedback training. She has over 175 peer-reviewed publications and was an Associate Editor of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. 

Diane is a Past President of the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society and the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) - the first physical therapist to serve in that role. 

She is a co-founder of the International Alliance of the Academies of Childhood Disabilities, an international effort to support the scientific education of multidisciplinary health professionals caring for children with CP and their families. She has received multiple awards, including the 2024 Mentorship award from the  AACPDM and the 2025 Lifetime Achievement award from the Cerebral Palsy Foundation