SuAnn Chen, M.D., is currently the Medical Director at Shore Rehabilitation Institute, an acute inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation hospital affiliated with JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute and located within Hackensack Meridian Health Ocean Medical Center in Brick, NJ. Dr. Chen is the Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Ocean Medical Center. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

Dr. Chen is a New Jersey native, completing her undergraduate training at Princeton University, followed by internship at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ. She completed her Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation residency training at New Jersey Medical School in Newark, NJ, and the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, NJ. She then completed a fellowship in Brain Injury Medicine at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab (formerly known as the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), affiliated with Northwestern University. After completing her training, she served as the Medical Director for the Brain Injury program at the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network in the Lehigh Valley, PA, before returning home to NJ, advancing to her current position.

Dr. Chen has participated in the Education and Conference Planning Committees of both the Brain Injury Association of PA and the Brain Injury Alliance of NJ. She continues to present lectures and conduct research in the field of brain injury rehabilitation and on the field of acute inpatient rehabilitation in general.

David B. Gealt, DO, a South Jersey native, is the Assistant Director of Sports Medicine and Director of the Sports Concussion Program at Cooper Bone and Joint Institute, Cooper University Health System. He is an Assistant Professor of Cooper Medical School at Rowan University and and Assistant Professor of Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine. He received his fellowship training in Primary Care Sports Medicine at the University Hospital Health Systems in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Gealt completed his residency in family medicine from UMDNJ-SOM newly named Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine and is board-certified in Family Medicine and Sports Medicine.

Dr. Gealt specializes in medical orthopaedics, sports medicine and concussion medicine. He lectures nationally and regionally on various sports medicine topics. He has both authored publications in peer reviewed journals and has contributed to sports medicine textbooks. He serves as team physician for Rowan University, Haverford College, Rutgers Camden and various high schools throughout Southern New Jersey. He served as the team physician for the Philadelphia Wings Professional Indoor Lacrosse team. He recently had the opportunity to be a team physician for USA Olympics at the Olympic training facility in Colorado Springs.

Dr. Gealt is an active member of the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, and American Osteopathic Association, as well as various state and local medical societies. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees and the Sports Concussion Committee for the Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey. He has been named Top Doc and Top Doc for Kids in Sports Medicine in SJ Magazine. He is an avid runner who participates in several road races each year. Dr. Gealt resides in Voorhees, NJ with his wife, son and daughter.

John Indyk is Vice President of the Health Care Association of New Jersey (HCANJ), where he represents long term care facilities, primarily lobbying legislators and government officials on their behalf.

A Former Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under for New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, John has over 30 years experience in public policy, community outreach, political campaigns, advertising, crisis management and media relations. Before HCANJ, he served as the lead government affairs agent in a full service public relations firm.

John is a graduate of Rutgers University and an Undergraduate Associate of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. He enjoys mountain biking and road cycling, skiing, golf and spending time with his wife and two grown children.

Evan J. Lide, Esq. is a Shareholder and member of Stark & Stark’s Personal Injury Group. He is also an expert Civil Trial Attorney as certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Evan has dedicated his career to seeking justice on behalf of those who have been wronged. He focuses his practice on representing people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and other catastrophic injury, including death, resulting from automobile crashes, products liability, and premises liability.

Evan is an experienced and skilled litigator who has tried cases to verdict all throughout New Jersey. Evan truly cares about his clients, and fights tirelessly to make sure insurance companies do the right thing, and also for corporations to be held accountable for their actions. Evan’s verdicts and settlements have been featured in the New Jersey Law Journal, New Jersey Jury Verdict Review & Analysis, New York Daily News, and the New York Post.

Evan was born and raised in New Jersey, and is proud to be known as a fighter who is willing to stand up on behalf of those in need. His father, a lawyer, taught Evan a love and appreciation for the law at a young age. His mother, a school teacher, gave him a passion for taking care of others. After college, Evan worked at his father’s law firm during the day and went to law school at night while also working two part time jobs as a waiter and a bartender. Evan is not afraid of hard work, and he believes in going the distance for every client. This approach has helped him obtain great results for his clients.

Evan’s advocacy for those who cannot help themselves extends to his community activities. Currently, Evan serves on the board of Rolling Harvest Food Rescue, a non-profit that collects donated produce from local farms and distributes immediately to the non-profit hunger-relief agencies helping the most needy families in the community. He also serves on the board of VolunteerConnect, which is a local non-profit that promotes skilled volunteerism by matching professionals looking for pro bono opportunities to nonprofit organizations that need their talents. Evan is a former board member of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF), which is a community-based non-profit organization whose mission is to defend and promote civil rights and facilitate access to health care and education for low-income Latin American immigrants.

Evan is on the Board of Governors of the New Jersey Association for Justice, serves as Co-Chair of the NJAJ Civil Practice Committee, and is a member of the Bad Faith Committee. He is also proud to be a member of the American Association for Justice and Mercer County Bar Association, and was recently reappointed for a third term on the New Jersey Supreme Court Model Civil Jury Charge Committee, and previously served as a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Women in the Courts. Following law school, Evan had the opportunity to serve as a law clerk to the Honorable Georgia M. Curio, Assignment Judge of Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem Counties.

While Evan is very proud of the results he has obtained for his clients and his reputation in the legal community, he is most proud to be a father. Evan and his wife, Melissa, reside in Lambertville, New Jersey, and Evan is spending whatever free time he has left teaching his four year old son, Robert, how to ride a bike.

Bryan Pfister received his PhD in Material Science and Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 2002 and did his post-doctoral study in the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pennsylvania. He joined the NJIT Biomedical Engineering Department in January 2006 where he has served as Department Chair for the past 10 years. Dr. Pfister’s research encompasses how mechanical forces affect the nervous system – developing new approaches answering long standing questions on the critical role of biomechanical loads on the growth of neurons to the pathogenesis of blast and brunt traumatic brain injuries (TBI) at molecular, cellular and systemic scales. Through novel bioreactor design and biomechanical based methods, his team demonstrated that axon stretch-growth is strain limited and regulates gene transcription distinct from known regenerative associated genes. As director, the Center for Injury Biomechanics, Materials and Medicine focuses on the biomechanics of brain injury from blunt and blast injuries using both animate models and full scale inanimate models of the human brain. He has introduced innovative TBI in vitro and animal models that can precisely control the biomechanical loading parameters. These remain unique models that can independently control the rate, magnitude and impulse of injury. His work has a great impact by linking the rate and impulse of load to the induction and progression of neuronal injury. He has been funded by the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Congressional Directed Medical Research Programs and the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research. Dr. Pfister maintains a diverse research group of students at all levels training together from undergraduate to postdoctoral scientists. He focuses on the inclusion of students with disabilities and is proud of consistently providing extracurricular experiences at the undergraduate level including directing an undergraduate research training program, the U-RISE at NJIT, an NIH T34 program.

Jenna Tucker, PT, DPT, NCS, CBIS earned her Doctorate in Physical Therapy, with a minor in psychology, from Northeastern University in 2011 including clinical rotations at Spaulding Rehabilitation in Boston and Burke Rehabilitation in White Plains. She began her career at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange in 2011, during which time she became a Certified Brain Injury Specialist. In 2014, she obtained her designation as a Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Neurologic Physical Therapy. She went on to take a position at Rehabilitation Specialists, where she expanded her clinical experience to include outpatient rehabilitation for adults with brain injury. In 2019, she joined the Department of Physical Therapy at Kean University as a Clinical Assistant Professor, where she serves as the department’s Neurologic Content Coordinator. Dr. Tucker’s research focuses on brain injury and concussion rehabilitation, as well as examination/treatment of dysautonomia, and her speaking experience includes symposia, workshops, platform and poster presentations at state-wide and national conferences.

Dr. Tucker has been a participant/fundraiser for the BIANJ Walk for Brain Injury Awareness since 2011 and continues to serve as the captain of ‘Team Tucker’ with an ongoing goal of promoting increased student involvement in the walk. She has been a member of the BIANJ Education committee since 2019 and continues to be actively involved. She has presented multiple workshops and mentored 20+ students in the submission of poster presentations at the BIANJ Annual Professional Seminar. Dr. Tucker was recognized by the Brain Injury Alliance of NJ as the 2023 recipient of the Jill Shulman Community Pillar Award.