Journal of Hand Therapy

October–December 2003

CONTRIBUTORS

Donna Breger Stanton, MA, OTR/L, CHT, FAOTA, is an Assistant Professor at Samuel
Merritt College, MOT Program in Oakland, CA. She is currently vice president of ASHT.
Donna has published several times in the JHT on topics related to sensibility, carpal tunnel
syndrome, splinting, and Hansen’s disease beginning in JHT’s first issue in 1987. Clinically,
Donna worked for five years at the Gillis W. Long Hansen’s Disease Center, Carville, LA;
and then as the Chief Hand Therapist at University of California, Davis Medical Center,
Sacramento. This article is the second completed in collaboration with Jane Bear-Lehman,
OTR, PhD, Associate Professor at Columbia University, NY, and the graduate students in
the Programs in Occupational Therapy. Donna and Jane both serve on the Editorial Board
of the JHT.

Patricia Burtner, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, is an Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy

at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Her areas of professional interest center on
motor control, especially in children with cerebral palsy. Currently Dr. Burtner is a principal
investigator on an NIH grant studying the effects of amphetamines on motor control
following traumatic brain injury. In 1999 she was honored by her university, receiving the
Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. We are delighted to offer our readers her first
publication in the JHT.

We are pleased to welcome Kevin Farrell, PT, PhD, OSC, FAAOMPT, as a first-time
contributor to the JHT. Kevin has a broad spectrum of professional areas of investigation
ranging from frozen shoulder, to cardiopulmonary parameters, to low back pain, to double
crush. He is an Associate Professor at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. In this
issue he presents work, in conjunction with a team of his grad students, on volumetric
measurement.

Caroline Stegink Jansen, PT, PhD, serves on the JHT Editorial Board and was a guest editor
of last year’s Special Issue on Splinting. Caroline is an Assistant Professor on the physical
therapy faculty of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She is the chair of
the Research Subcommittee of the Hand Section of the APTA. Her publications cover a wide
variety of hand-related subjects, from cock-up splinting, to material properties of Theraband,
to zone II flexor tendon injuries.
Volumetrics has caught the interest of three authors in this issue. George Maihafer, PT, PhD,
from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, collaborated with his grad students to
write on the figure-of-eight method of measuring hand volume. At Old Dominion, he is
Chairman of the Graduate Program in Physical Therapy. This is his first (published) venture
into the world of hands. Currently the President of the Virginia Physical Therapy
Association, Dr. Maihafer is the recipient of several professional awards including most
recently the 2002 Rettie Research Award.

The two MCP arthroplasty papers in this issue are not the first time we have heard from
Nicola Massy-Westropp, BAppSc (OT), MHealth, CHT, from Adelaide, Australia. This
PhD candidate at Flinders University of South Australia has published on Semmes-
Weinstein monofilaments previously in the JHT. Her primary professional interests are CTS
and RA of the hands. The 2000 Doddridge research prize and the 2001 ATL Phillips
Ultrasound Award for research are among Nicola’s distinctions.

Geraldine Pellecchia, PT, PhD, Associate Professor of Physical Therapy at the University of
Hartford in Connecticut, like two other authors in this issue, has written on the subject of
volume measurements. In addition to volumetrics, Gerry is interested in other measurement
issues and motor control and learning. She has published previous work on musculoskeletal
examination, interlimb coordination, and postural sway. We are pleased to publish her first
article in the JHT.

As an industrial engineer teaching mechanics at the University of Castello in Spain, Joaquı́n

Sancho-Bru, PhD, is keenly interested in biomechanics. His previous investigations have
utilized a 3D modeling technique to study finger and hand movements. Also Dr. Sancho-Bru
has studied knee and dental biomechanics. The JHT is delighted to publish this first work
for our readership.