RECOVER Leadership
RECOVER Staff: Leadership | Affiliated Investigators | Clinical & Rehabilitation | Engineering & Design | Administration & Support
Andrew H. Hansen, PhD
Director, RECOVER Center, REC ICC, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Professor, Rehabilitation Science, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota
Andrew grew up on a farm in Iowa and actively assisted with fixing and maintaining farm machinery. After high school, he went on to earn degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of Iowa (BSE in 1995) and Northwestern University (MS in 1998, PhD in 2002). Andrew has worked for the VA since 2006 and at the Minneapolis VA specifically since 2009. His research and development interests are broad and include development and evaluation of rehabilitation technologies for Veterans with amputations and Veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders.
Sara Koehler-McNicholas, PhD
Associate Director of Amputation Research, RECOVER Center, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Research Health Scientist, Research Service, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Assistant Professor, Rehabilitation Science, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota
Sara is a principal investigator and Associate Director of the Minneapolis VA RECOVER Center with over fifteen years of experience in rehabilitation engineering research.
John M. Looft, PhD
Associate Director of SCID Research, RECOVER Center, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Director of Motion Analysis Laboratory, Prosthetics Service Line, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Assistant Professor, Rehabilitation Science & Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota
John's research combines biomechanical solutions with rehabilitation principles to solve fundamental problems in public health. He has a diverse background in the fields of ergonomics, biomedical, computer, and mechanical engineering, physical therapy, and public health.
Erin Krebs, MD, MPH
Associate Director of Engagement, RECOVER Center, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Core Investigator, CCDOR, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Chief of General Internal Medicine, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School
Erin is a primary care physician and Chief of General Internal Medicine at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. She calls herself a "triple Gopher," because she completed degrees in women's studies (BA, 1996) and medicine (MD, 2000), as well as internal medicine residency training (2003) at the University of Minnesota. After a year as a chief resident at the Minneapolis VA, she took a detour to the University of North Carolina, where she completed post-doctoral research training (MPH, 2006). Erin's professional goal is to improve the management of chronic pain in primary care. She loves how VA allows her to practice medicine while conducting research on problems that are important to patients. Her current studies focus on opioid tapering outcomes and care of patients prescribed long-term opioids for chronic pain.
Byron Eddy, DO
Medical Director of SCID Research, RECOVER Center, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Staff Physician, Spinal Cord Injury & Disorders Center, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
After living in Wisconsin, Byron earned a BA degree from Carleton College (Northfield, MN) in 2005 and DO title from A.T. Still University (Kirksville, MO) in 2009. He then completed a physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at the University of Minnesota in 2013 and has been a physician specializing in spinal cord injury medicine at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center ever since. His research interests include pain management, pressure injury prevention, and functional restoration in spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D), with the aim of improving the quality of life of Veterans with SCI/D.
Tonya Rich, PhD, OTR/L
Assistant Director of Engagement, RECOVER Center, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Occupational Therapist, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Assistant Professor, Rehabilitation Science, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota
Tonya decided to become an occupational therapist when she was 12 years old and never changed her mind! She trained in occupational therapy (OT) at the University of North Dakota (2000) and brings a wealth of clinical experience. During that time, she pursued a Master's degree in Health Care Administration (2005) at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. Her relentless questions and desire to develop new interventions and technologies drew her back for a PhD in Rehabilitation Science at the University of Minnesota (2017). She joined the Minneapolis VA Health Care Center in 2018. Consistent with her OT training, her research focuses on pain and how it impacts Veteran's abilities to participate in desired activities and roles in life (occupations). Core to her approach is a commitment to active collaboration between research and her fellow clinicians.
Mary (Molly) Matsumoto, MD
Medical Director of Amputation Research, RECOVER Center, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Medical Director of Regional Amputation Center, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Minnesota
