The O&P Foundation for Education and Research named its 2024 Doctoral Training Award winners.
Certified orthotists and prosthetists who choose to pursue a PhD, often no longer employed in clinical practice, frequently experience financial hardship in managing the expenses associated with professional engagement and maintaining of clinical credentials, said the O&P Foundation, which offers up to $1,000 for up to ten ABC-certified practitioners actively pursuing a doctoral degree. These funds serve to offset expenses associated with attending O&P conferences, maintaining professional memberships, and receiving continuing education units.
Recipients include:
Emily Dinelli, CPO
Dinelli holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from West Texas A&M University and a master’s in O&P from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She completed her prosthetics residency at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and conducted research at the Center for Bionic Medicine on the impact of prosthetic mass on energy expenditure for those with above-knee amputations.
She completed her orthotics residency at Hanger Clinic and is contributing to outcomes research with the Hanger Institute for Clinical Research & Education.
She is a PhD candidate in the Health Sciences Integrated Program at Northwestern University and conducts research at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research. Dinelli works part-time as a clinician for Hanger Clinic in Chicago.
Myrriah Laine Dyreson, CPO
Laine Dyreson is a third-year PhD student in Rehabilitation Science at the University of Minnesota advised by Sara Koehler-McNicholas, PhD, and Andrew Hansen, PhD. She is also a research prosthetist/orthotist in the Rehabilitation and Engineering Center for Optimizing Veteran Engagement and Reintegration (RECOVER) Program at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System.
Her research interests involve enhancing engagement in important life roles and activities in lower-limb prosthesis users through evaluation of ecologically valid outcomes.
Kierra Falbo, CPO
Falbo completed her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her master’s degree in O&P at Northwestern University. She is a research prosthetist/orthotist with RECOVER at the Minneapolis VA and a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota.
Brittany Moores, CPO
Moores is a PhD candidate in the Human Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences program at Northeastern University. Her current research is focused on clinical biomechanics, preference, and education with the goal of better understanding the relationship between patients and certified prosthetists.
She received her Master of Science in Prosthetics and Orthotics from the University of Hartford, completed her orthotics residency at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, and her prosthetics residency at a private clinic in Alaska. She practiced clinically in Washington and Alaska.
Alyssa Petz, CPO, CFm
Petz is a clinician at the VA Orlando Health Care System. She received her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Michigan State University and her master’s in O&P at Northwestern University. She completed an orthotics residency at the University of Michigan Orthotics and Prosthetics Center and a prosthetics residency at the Orlando VA. Petz is pursuing a doctorate in health science through the University of the Pacific.
Ciera A. Price, CPO
Price is a research prosthetist/orthotist at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Duke University and a master’s degree in health science from California State University-Dominguez Hills.
She is a first-year translational science PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin and a full-time research clinician at the Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center. Her research priorities include health policy, residual limb health, and exoskeleton development. Price also serves on several committees within the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists and volunteers clinical care throughout Central and South America.
Rachael Rosen, CPO
Rosen is a PhD candidate in the Rehabilitation Science program at the University of Washington’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. Her clinical experience has directly informed her research, which focuses on evaluating health and mobility outcomes related to O&P interventions. Rosen’s work also explores how big data and machine learning can be leveraged to improve health equity, reduce disparities, and address social determinants of health for individuals who have had, or are at risk for amputation.
She has contributed to research teams developing and validating innovative outcome measures for lower-limb prosthesis users. Recently, she joined the University of Washington’s ASPIRe (Advancing Health Services & Policy In Rehabilitation) lab, where her work examines postacute care outcomes in Medicare beneficiaries following lower-limb amputations, with a focus on identifying disparities and predictors of hospital readmission.
Samantha Stauffer, CPO
Stauffer is the director of research at Independence Prosthetics-Orthotics, Delaware, where she manages collaborations with university researchers and industry. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Delaware in the Biomechanics and Movement Science Program, where her work with the Delaware Limb Loss Studies Lab focuses on understanding physiologic adaptations to amputation and improvement of postamputation rehabilitation. She has presented her research findings nationally, and was recently awarded the 2025 Thranhardt Lecture Award.
Nicole Walker, CPO
Walker is a research prosthetist/orthotist in the Rehabilitation and Engineering RECOVER program and a grants management specialist at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. She is also a fifth-year PhD candidate in rehabilitation science at the University of Minnesota, where she is advised by Andrew Hansen, PhD. Her graduate research focuses on life participation among prosthesis users, including the development and implementation of technologies aimed at serving women with amputations.
