The mission of the ASIA Early Career Committee is to nourish the career growth of students, trainees, and early career professionals with an interest in the SCI field, encourage interaction across rehabilitation disciplines and throughout the career trajectory, and foster leadership within the field.
Early Career Award abstracts are chosen from work submitted during the regular annual conference call for submissions.
Early Career 2025 Best Oral Presentation
 Rafer Willenberg, MD, PhD 2025 Early Career Best Oral Presentation Award: Dr. Rafer Willenberg is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, as well as a SCI physician and neurologist in the Boston Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System. He completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Stanford University, PhD at the University of California at Irvine, medical school at the University of California at San Diego, residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California, SCI Fellowship via Harvard / Spaulding / VA Boston, and an advanced fellowship in SCI Research at the VA Boston. Rafer is interested in injury and repair of the nervous system, with current research focusing on stroke risk with spinal cord injury. |
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Early Career 2025 Best Poster Kyle Missen, PhD 2025 Early Career Best Poster Award: Dr. Kyle Missen is a postdoctoral fellow at the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD) in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Missen completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Brock University. In 2024, he completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia, where he applied system identification and mathematical modelling to investigate sensory integration mechanisms involved in controlling static and dynamic balance. Under the mentorship of clinician-scientist Dr. Michael J. Berger, Dr. Missen’s postdoctoral research focuses on identifying neurophysiological factors that influence functional, motor, and patient-reported outcomes following nerve transfer surgery aimed at restoring upper limb function in individuals with cervical spinal cord injury. |
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| Past Early Career Award Recipients | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early Career Oral Presentation Award | Early Career Poster Presentation Award | |||||
| 2021 | Gary Farkas, PhD | 2021 | Angela Filous, PhD | |||
| 2022 | Andrew Park, MD | 2022 | Marla Petriello, DO | |||
| 2023 | Khin Nyein Chan, MBBS, MS | 2023 | Liza Roik | |||
| 2024 | Claire Shackleton, PhD | 2024 | Dr. Justine Stewart, Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow | |||
