Our Team

Lab Director

Emily Evans, PT, PhD (She/Her/Hers)

Dr. Evans is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Boston University. Dr Evans earned her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences from the MGH-Institute of Health Professions (2019), and completed her clinical training at Ithaca College (DPT 2005). She has more than 17 years of experience as a physical therapist working with individuals with neurologic diagnoses in post-acute and community-based rehabilitation settings and continues to practice at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital on a per diem basis. Dr. Evans’s research aims to inform efficient and effective rehabilitative care for individuals with acquired neurological diagnoses by leveraging clinical and administrative data and implementation methods.


Academic Researcher

Johanna Spangler, DPT, MPH (She/Her/Hers)

Dr. Spangler is a clinical research project manager and research physical therapist at Boston University’s Neuromotor Recovery Laboratory. She received her DPT from the MGH Institute of Health Professions (2018) and completed her MPH at Boston University (2025). In the LINC Lab, Johanna is analyzing the relationship between length of stay and achieving low fall risk status on the Berg Balance Scale.



PhD Student

Sungchun Lee, MS (He/Him/His)

Sungchun is a PhD student in Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University and a member of the LINC Lab. He received his MS in Applied Data Science from Syracuse University and his BS in Sport for All Studies from Soongsil University. His current research interests focus on promoting physical activity and health through data-driven approaches and designing personalized interventions to support rehabilitation and patient care.

 

Graduate Research Assistants

Sarah Evenson, MBE, DPT Candidate (She/Her/Hers)

Sarah is a second-year DPT student at BU. She received her BA in Sociology from Haverford College (2021) and her Master of Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine (2022). Sarah previously spent two years as a Project Manager at the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women’s and Harvard, where she was involved with the Bioethics Collaborative and the Research, Development, and Regulatory Roundtable presented in conjunction with Ropes & Gray LLP. Her previous academic work has focused on a variety of topics including medical gaslighting and disability identity among adults living with “invisible” chronic illnesses, organizational ethics and responsibilities of healthcare institutions, the impact of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and other data privacy laws on clinical trials, and a variety of other ethical and regulatory issues arising in clinical research. Her work has been published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Gloria Lee, DPT Candidate (She/Her/Hers)

Gloria is currently a 2nd year physical therapy student at BU. As being admitted to the 6 year PT program, she has been major representative for Sargent College where she served as a link between the needs of the students and larger student government, as well as an active member of the squash team. In the LINC lab, Gloria organizes lab files, manages research-related photos, and contributes to scoping reviews for a forthcoming research project.

Kledion Naksi, MPH Candidate (He/Him/His)

Kledion is the Senior Staff Coordinator in Sargent’s Research Administration department and a 2nd year MPH student at the BU School of Public Health. Kledion completed his BS in Health Science (2024) at Boston University where he contributed to tuberculosis and nutrition research in the Global Health Nutrition Lab. Kledion joins the LINC Lab in his MPH practicum as a research assistant cleaning and analyzing traumatic brain injury (TBI) data from the MarketScan database to help establish patterns of care among TBI patients after their initial diagnosis.



DPT Practicum Students

  • Mary Kate Brennan
  • Kelsea Ratz


LINC Lab Alumni