Speaker Bios

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David Putrino trained and worked as a physiotherapist in Australia before completing a PhD in Neuroscience and moving to the US to work as a researcher. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and is the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, David has been recognized globally as a leading expert in the assessment, treatment and underlying pathophysiology of Long COVID. His team has managed the care of thousands of people with Long COVID, ME/CFS and chronic tick- and vector borne illness and have published multiple peer-reviewed scientific papers regarding these diagnoses. In 2019, he was named "Global Australian of the Year" for his contributions to healthcare 

Rebecca Donnelly is a physical therapist at BIDMC in the outpatient physical therapy department and has been part of the COVID Survivorship Program since 2021. She is a Board-Certified Orthopedic Specialist with specialized expertise in treating people with Long COVID. Rebecca is a clinical leader who educates other physical therapists on how to develop individualized plans of care for patients experiencing fatigue, post-exertional malaise, and dysautonomia including POTS. Her work emphasizes safe, paced rehabilitation and adapting traditional physical therapy approaches to meet the unique needs of people living with Long COVID. 

Kara McSheehy is an outpatient occupational therapist who works closely with the BIDMC Long COVID Survivorship Program to support people experiencing persistent symptoms after COVID-19. Her work focuses on changes in functional cognition, endurance, activity tolerance, and reduced independence in valued daily activities. Kara helps patients develop practical, individualized strategies to manage energy, cognitive load, and daily routines so they can function more safely and confidently in everyday life. In addition to her Long COVID work, she specializes in neurological and pelvic floor rehabilitation and serves as the occupational therapy counterpart for the BIDMC Center of Excellence for Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS.

Hadas Golan is a speech-language pathologist at Boston Medical Center, an Integrative Breathing Therapies practitioner, and an Associate Professor at Boston University’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She works in the voice and swallowing center and is also a provider in BMC’s Long COVID RECOVER clinic. Hadas specializes in respiratory and upper airway disorders and uses evidence-based breathing therapies including the Buteyko breathing method, resonance frequency breathing, and resistance training breathing to restore functional breathing and lung health. Her work integrates breathing, voice, and manual techniques to address chronic shortness of breath, fatigue, anxiety, exertion intolerance, and brain fog in people living with Long COVID, with an emphasis on patient empowerment and whole-system rehabilitation. 

David Systrom is a member of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital pulmonary and critical care faculty and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School where he directs the Dyspnea Clinic and the Advanced Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Program. He has been on the Harvard faculty for over 35 years during which time he has received NIH, AHA, Department of Defense, Dysautonomia International and OMF funding to study various forms of exercise intolerance. Over the past five years, he has used invasive cardiopulmonary exercise testing to investigate mechanisms underlying fatigue, shortness of breath and orthostatic intolerance in ME/CFS and PASC. His recent work suggest commonality between the two, in particular neurovascular dysregulation and related hyperventilation underlying symptoms during exercise.

Erin Cecil is a Senior Clinical Research Coordinator in the Sleep and Inflammatory Systems Lab at Beth Israel Deaconesses Medical Center and has a Master of Science in Cognitive Science from University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. Prior to joining BIDMC, she was a Clinical Research Coordinator at Mayo Clinic for their Biospecimens Subcommittee. At BIDMC, she helps coordinate all studies associated with the RECOVER Initiative for which BIDMC is a recruitment site of the Boston-wide hub, and is also one of the lead study coordinators on the RECOVER-SLEEP Napping in the Scanner study in collaboration with Dr. Tony Cunningham’s and Dr. David Alsop’s lab.   Erin helps develop, implement, and maintain study executions that align with institutional guidelines and Good Clinical Practice. She also maintains regulatory reporting needs to IRB, other organizations, and her lab.  

Jonathan Garlick is a Professor at Tufts University in the School of Dental Medicine, School of Medicine, and School of Engineering. His NIH-funded research laboratory has pioneered the use of stem cells for tissue engineering to develop new treatments for oral health, cancer, scleroderma, and diabetes-related complications. He is the Director of Science Communications for the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute. As an educator, Jonathan leads the Tufts Initiative in Civic Science, a national program that promotes inclusive public learning about science and encourages civic dialogue, moral responsibility, and social action around complex and divisive science issues. 

  Kathleen P. Banks, DrPHc, MPH, is a health systems researcher specializing in the translation of evidence to practice. She has partnered with decision makers from the global to local levels to design and implement policies and programs that advance the quality of healthcare. Ms. Banks is internationally recognized for leading pivotal research to address disrespect and abuse during childbirth during her tenure at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Ms. Banks is completing her Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree at the Boston University School of Public Health. Her research focuses on access to patient-centered healthcare for Long COVID. She was one of the first COVID-19 contact tracers in 2020 and has been a researcher with the Patient-Led Research Collaborative since 2024. 

Mindy Domb is the State Representative for Massachusetts’s Third Hampshire District, serving Amherst, Pelham, and part of Granby. She previously served as Executive Director of the Amherst Survival Center, where she focused on food security, public health, and access to essential services.

As a legislator, Rep. Domb has been a strong advocate for people living with Long COVID. She has sponsored the last two Long COVID legislative briefings in Massachusetts, working in partnership with Jo Comerford, Marjorie Decker, Julian Cyr, and the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus. Through these efforts, she has helped elevate awareness of Long COVID as an ongoing public health issue and pushed for coordinated state-level responses to address the needs of affected residents.

Her broader legislative work includes expanding health equity, improving public health responses, and supporting constituent services in her district