The Orthotics & Prosthetics Foundation for Education and Research named Myrriah Laine Dyreson and Julie Ferrell-Olson as its spring 2025 mentored pilot recipients. The O&P Foundation’s Mentored Pilot Research Grant program awards one-year grants of $5,000 to support clinically relevant activities and projects.
Dyreson was award for her research, “Characterizing Aspects of Participation Among Veterans Following Provision of a First Lower Limb Prosthesis.”
Dyreson is a rehabilitation science doctoral student at the University of Minnesota and a research prosthetist-orthotist at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration within the Rehabilitation & Engineering Center for Optimizing Veteran Engagement & Reintegration. Her long-term goal is to generate research that is translatable and clinically relevant—work that empowers care teams to create personalized, data-driven treatment plans that improve patient outcomes and quality of life.
Ferrell-Olson was awarded for her research, “Determining the contribution of co-contraction to lower limb prosthesis users’ locomotor fatigability.”
Ferrell-Olson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois Chicago in the department of kinesiology and nutrition. She is a member of the Locomotor and Rehabilitation Lab at the university. Her research aims to bridge the gap between qualitative and biomechanics research, using lived experiences to motivate in-lab studies and gain a more holistic perspective.
