Malaak Yeyha

Malaak finished her Master’s of Public Health in August of 2023. Her research revolved around community engagement and improving the quality of life for wheelchair and scooter users. Malaak supported the development of a customizable fall detection alert system for wheelchair users by recruiting and screening participants for device testing and managing study data. She is now a Clinical Research Coordinator at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and plans to attend medical school in the near future. 

Libak Abou

Dr. Abou completed his PhD in May 2022. His research focused on identifying modifiable risk factors associated with falls and injurious falls among non-ambulatory individuals with spinal cord injury. He is now a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor.

JongHun Sung

Dr. JongHun Sung finished his PhD in August of 2019. His dissertation was focused on fall management among wheelchair users. He is now an assistant professor at Inha University in the Department of Kinesiology in South Korea.

Alexander Fliflet

Alex Fliflet currently pursuing a PhD in exercise physiology. He is primarily working on studying the origin of endurance exercise adaptations. I hope to determine the cell type responsible for producing exercise benefits. Along with developing a model to confer the exercise adaptations into a sedentary model.

Joey Peters

Joseph Peters finished his PhD in Kinesiology in 2022. His research focused on assistive technology and exercise for improving the quality of life and health of people with spinal cord injury. He is now a medical student at Kansas City University.

Mikaela Frechette

Dr. Frechette earned her PhD in August 2022. While much of her work focused on the development of assistive technologies, her dissertation explored the kinesthetic factors affecting the attentional demands of wheelchair propulsion and how environmental complexity impacts these demands.

 Currently, Dr. Frechette is the Lead Design Researcher at Tekna, a product design and development consulting firm in Kalamazoo, Michigan, that specializes in medical products. She is passionate about bridging the gap between academia and industry and continues to serve the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in various capacities, including as a mentor and judge for the Health Maker Lab and COZAD New Venture Challenge