Workshop Agenda

Prathima Nalam, Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Design and Innovation, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University at Buffalo

Dr. Prathima Nalam received her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from JNT University, India. She later moved to Switzerland and finished her MSc and PhD degrees in Material Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. She received a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Fellowship to conduct her Post-Doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania. She extended her postdoc to work in the Environmental Engineering Department at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, before joining UB. Her current research interests range from tribology of materials and the mechanics of soft structures to the development of filtration membranes.  

R. Lorraine Collins, Associate Dean for Research and Professor, Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo

Dr. R. Lorraine Collins received her BA in Psychology from McGill University and her MS and PhD in Psychology from Rutgers University. She has conducted NIH-funded addictions research for decades. Her research interests, which cover a wide range of topics, are mostly focused on substance use by young adults. She has conducted research on cognitive and behavioral approaches to the conceptualization, prevention, and treatment of addictive behaviors; psycho-social issues (e.g., gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status) related to substance use and misuse; research methods that use technology for assessment and intervention; and high-risk behaviors related to substance use. 

Martina Anto-Ocrah, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, Neurology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Rochester Medical Center

Dr. Martina Anto-Ocrah received her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Rochester in May 2018. Prior to completing her doctorate, Martina pursued an undergraduate degree in Clinical Laboratory Science from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, and a Master of Public Health degree, also from the University of Rochester. Her research interests are focused mainly on under-resourced settings and vulnerable populations, and center around reproductive epidemiology, injury research methods and epidemiology, and global emergency medicine. She is a 2019-2020 recipient of the Furth Fund Award, established at the University of Rochester to help foster the development of promising scientists in the natural and biological sciences.

Tara Feuerstein, Head, Device Quality Risk and Usability, Takeda

Ms. Tara Feuerstein has an MS in Industrial Engineering/Human Factors, a BS in Biomedical Engineering, and a BA in Cognitive Science with a concentration in neuroscience, all from the University at Buffalo. Prior to joining Takeda as Head of Device Quality Risk and Usability, she was a Senior Human Factors Engineer at Farm Design, Inc., where she was responsible for executing and documenting research studies utilizing a variety of methodologies. She has also worked as a Human Factors Engineer at Medtronic, where she conducted formative and summative usability studies, generated user needs and user requirements, prepared Human Factors Summary Reports for the FDA, and created risk documentation that captured use-related risks.