Program Director

Susan Murphy, ScD, OTR

Anna Kratz, PhD
ARRT Fellows

Crystal Ng, PhD
Publications
◾ Ng, Y. T., Han, S. H., Fingerman, K. L., & Birditt, K.S. (in press). Do friends get under the skin?. Everyday social encounters and cardiovascular functioning among Black and White adults in the United States. Health Psychology.
◾ Ng, Y. T., Fingerman, K. L., & Birditt, K.S. (2023). Friendships and emotional well-being in the context of race and age. The Gerontologist. 63, 1129–1139 https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnad007
◾ Ng, Y. T., Huo, M., Han, S. H., Birditt, K. S. & Fingerman, K. L. (2022). Older adult’s marital status, conversation and well-being in everyday life. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. 77(3), 499–512. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab112
◾ Ng, Y. T., Huo, M., Gleason, M. E., Neff, L. A., Charles, S. T. & Fingerman, K. L. (2021). Friendships in old age: Daily encounters and emotional well-being. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. 76(3), 551–562. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa007
◾ Fingerman, K. L., Ng, Y. T., Huo, M., Birditt, K.S., Charles, S. T., & Zarit, S. (2021). Functional limitations, social integration, and daily activities in late life. The Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. gbab014.
◾ Fingerman, K. L., Ng, Y. T., Zhang, S., Britt, K., Colera, G., Birditt, K. S., & Charles, S. T. (2020). Living alone during COVID-19: Social contact and emotional well-being among older adults. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Science. gbaa200.
Awards & Grants
◾ 2023 - Dissertation Award in the Psychology of Aging, American Psychological Association (APA Division 20)
◾ 2023 - Pilot Grant (P30AG012846), The Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging
◾ 2023 - Dan Barry Trainee Research Grant, University of Michigan
◾ 2022 - Dissertation Research Award, Gerontological Society of America (GSA)

Alexandra Harper, PhD
Publications
◾ Harper AE, Chen YT, Tancer S, Rodgers KR, Crumb AD, Townsend WA, Knight JS, Murphy SL. Non-pharmacological rehabilitation interventions for individuals with antiphospholipid syndrome: A scoping review. (In press). Lupus.
◾ Samuels E, Janevic MR, Harper AE, Lyden AK, Jay GM, Champagne E, Murphy SL. Updating and evaluating a research best practices training course for social and behavioral research professionals. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. (In press).
◾ Murphy SL, Jay GM, Samuels E, Eakin B, Harper AE, Piatt G, Trujillo VI, Weeks-Norton K, Striley C, O’Leary C, Hahn J, Watkins DC, Cottler L, Aguilar-Gaxiola S. Evaluation of an online research best practices training for community health workers and promotoras. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. 2023. doi:10.1017/cts.2023.624
◾ Murphy SL, Chen YT, Alore M, Hicks S, Pape A, Hasset A, Kratz A, Whibley D, Harper AE, Huang S, Jay GM, Bolde S, Khanna D. Effects of a resilience-building energy management program on fatigue and other symptoms in systemic sclerosis: A randomized controlled trial. Arthritis Care & Research. 2023. doi: 10.1002/acr.25253
◾ Harper AE, Krause JS, Terhorst L, Leland NE. Differences in functional improvement based on history of substance abuse and pain severity following spinal cord injury. Substance Abuse. 2022. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2021.1941507
◾ Harper AE, Terhorst L, Brienza D, Leland NE. Exploring the first pressure injury and characteristics of subsequent pressure injury accrual following spinal cord injury. The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine. 2021;44(6):972-977. doi: 10.1080/10790268.2020.1744871
◾ Harper AE, Terhorst L, Moscirella M, Turner RL, Piersol CV, Leland NE. The experiences, priorities, and perceptions of informal caregivers of persons with dementia in nursing homes: A scoping review. Dementia. 2021;20(8):2746-2765. doi: 10.1177/14713012211012606
◾ Harper AE, Rouch S, Leland NE, Turner RL, Mansbach WE, Day CE, Terhorst L. A systematic review of the tools assessing the perspective of caregivers of residents with dementia. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2021. doi: 10.1177/07334648211028692
Presentations
◾ Harper AE,Chen YT, Khanna D, Murphy SL. Participants’ perceptions of the feasibility and acceptability of the Resilience-based Energy Management to Enhance Wellbeing (RENEW) intervention, website, and app for individuals with systemic sclerosis. Scientific poster presentation at the annual Occupational Therapy Summit of Scholars. June 2023. Columbus, OH.
◾ Osterhoudt H, Ching L, Shih MM, Schneider C, Harper AE, Mohammad H, Skidmore ER, Wang Y, Zhou L. Feasibility of categorizing rehabilitation gestures for automated fidelity assessment on strategy training using deep learning. Presentation at the 11th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI 2023). June 2023. Houston, TX
◾ Skidmore ER, Harper AE, Miller C, Shih M. Preparing for Strategy Training Implementation: Lessons Learned. Symposium presentation at the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine 100th Annual Conference. November 2023. Atlanta, GA.
◾ Harper AE, Trujillo V, Iglesias J, McKay A, Hernandez M. A partnership model for training community health workers/promotoras in community-engaged research. Symposium presentation at the Association for Clinical and Translational Science Translational Science 2024 Conference. April 2024. Las Vegas, NV.
Grants
◾ University of Pittsburgh CTSI Dissemination and Implementation Science Pilot Award (Harper, Co-I; Skidmore, PI; Grant# UL1TR001857). 01/01/2022 – 12/31/2022. Organizational Variance and Readiness for Strategy Training. This mixed methods study aims to inform a future large-scale hybrid I effectiveness-implementation trial of strategy training, an efficacious multidisciplinary approach to rehabilitation service delivery that shows promise for reducing disparities in outcomes for people with cognitive impairments, particularly among marginalized populations, by characterizing variations in facilities and providers that may influence implementation as well as facility and provider readiness for, and perceived barriers and facilitators to, strategy training implementation.
◾ University of Pittsburgh CTSI Exploring Existing Data Resources Pilot Award (Harper, Co-I; Wang, PI; Grant# UL1TR001857). 03/1/2022 – 02/28/2023. A3ST – AI-Based Automated Fidelity Assessment for Strategy Training in Inpatient Rehabilitation. This study aims to leverage advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to automate the fidelity assessment approach for strategy training to decrease the burden of fidelity assessment for large-scale trials of rehabilitation interventions.