UNC CCCR Speaker Series
The UNC CCCR Speaker Series presents leading experts and thought leaders to discuss the latest research-based scientific insights. We hope you enjoy these presentations and welcome your suggestions regarding future topics and speakers. Please feel free to reach out to us at: admin.tarc.cccr@unc.edu.
We invite you to join us in real-time for our live presentations or listen to the recorded versions at a later date.
UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS
February 25, 2026 — 9:30am EST
Talk Title: To be announced.
Bella Mehta, MBBS, MS, MD
Rheumatologist
Assistant Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine
Hospital for Special Surgery
Register to Attend Virtually
March 18, 2026 — 10:30am EST
Talk Title: To be announced.
Kerry Costello, PhD
Assistant Professor | Director, AI Biomechanics Laboratory (AIBL)
Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
University of Florida
Register to Attend Virtually
PREVIOUS PRESENTATIONS
December 10, 2025 — 10:30am EST
“Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis at an Early Structural Stage (EsSKOA): Definition, Rationale, Progress to Date, and Remaining Challenges”
Armaghan Mahmoudian, PT, MPT, PhD
Assistant Professor
Movement Sciences and Health
University of West Florida
Link to Recorded Presentation
October 8, 2025 — 10:30am EST
“Using EHR data for research and quality improvement: the RISE registry”
Jinoos Yazdany, MD, MPH
Chief, Division of Rheumatology at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital
Alice Betts Endowed Professor of Medicine, UCSF
Link to Recorded Presentation
May 21, 2025 — 10:30am EST
“Mind Matters: Characterizing Pain-Associated Psychological Distress Phenotypes Among Patients Undergoing Total Joint Arthroplasty”
Michelle Ramirez, PT, DPT, OCS
PhD Candidate, Population Health Sciences
Duke University School of Medicine
Link to Recorded Presentation
February 12, 2025 — 9:30am EST
“Population (Gen)Omics in Osteoarthritis”
Cindy Boer, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine
Erasmus MC
Link to Recorded Presentation
January 29, 2025 — 10:30am EST
“Machine Learning and AI in Rheumatic Disease Research”
Jamie Collins, PhD
Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Link to Recorded Presentation
December 18, 2024 — 10:30am EST
Session Title: Optimization of Clinical Trial Design
“Intervention Optimization and Heterogeneity of Treatment Effects”
Kelli Allen, PhD
Professor of Medicine, UNC Div. of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology
Co-Director, UNC CCCR Methodology Core
Research Health Scientist, Durham VA Medical Center
“Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) and Applications to Intervention Development: Optimizing Interventions to Allow for Smaller Sample Sizes”
Sandra Soto, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
Thurston Arthritis Research Center
UNC at Chapel Hill
Link to Recorded Presentation
October 2, 2024 — 10:30 a.m. EST
“Influence of Sociodemographic and Clinical Features on Ground Reaction Force Variability Among Individuals with Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis”
Yvonne Golightly, PT, MS, PhD
Assistant Dean for Research | College of Allied Health Professions
Professor | Physical Therapy Program | College of Allied Health Professions
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Link to Recorded Presentation
September 11, 2024 — 10:30 a.m. EST
“Making the Move to Understand Movement-Evoked Pain in Musculoskeletal Research”
Staja “Star” Booker, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor, College of Nursing
Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science
University of Florida
Link to Recorded Presentation
May 8, 2024 — 10:30 a.m. EST
“Using Wearable Sensors and Musculoskeletal Simulation to Inform Precision Rehabilitation in Knee OA”
Jason Franz, PhD
Associate Professor
Director, BME Well-Being
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
North Carolina State University
Link to Recorded Presentation
April 24, 2024 — 9:30 a.m. EST
“Value of Knee OA Treatments”
Elena Losina, PhD
Director, Policy and Innovation eValuation in Orthopedic Treatments (PIVOT) Center
Director, Orthopedic and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research (OrACORe)
Department of Orthopedic Surgery
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Link to Recorded Presentation
March 20, 2024 — 3:00 p.m. EST
“Digital Delivery of Osteoarthritis Lifestyle Care”
Professor Kim Bennell, FAHMS
Melbourne Laureate Professor
Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor
Dept. of Physiotherapy, Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Link to Recorded Presentation
February 28, 2024 — 10:30 a.m. EST
“The Biomechanical Path to Osteoarthritis Following Knee Injury and a GAIT-way to Improved Outcomes”
Brian Pietrosimone, PhD, ATC
Associate Professor
Department of Exercise and Sport Science
UNC at Chapel Hill
Link to Recorded Presentation
December 6, 2023 — 10:30 a.m. EST
“The A’s, B’s, and ZZZ’s of Sleep in RA and Lupus”
Patricia Katz, PhD
Professor of Medicine and Health Policy
University of California San Francisco
Link to Recorded Presentation
October 25, 2023 — 9:30 a.m. EST
“Chronic Pain and Resilience: How Do We Harness the Power of Joy, Optimism and Love?”
Afton Hassett, PsyD
Associate Professor & Director of Pain and Opioid Research
Department of Anesthesiology
University of Michigan
Link to Recorded Presentation
October 18, 2023 — 10:30 a.m. EST
“Mental Health Phenotyping in Osteoarthritis: From Concept to Implementation”
Trever Lentz, PhD
Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery
Duke University School of Medicine
Link to Recorded Presentation
August 25, 2023 — 12:00 p.m. EST
“Technology Development in the Aging Sphere”
John Batsis, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Geriatric Medicine
UNC
Link to Recorded Presentation
April 12, 2023
“Informatics & Digital Health Tools to Support Clinical Research and Care: Examples from Rheumatology”
Jeffrey Curtis, MD
Clinical Professor of Medicine
Division of Immunology and Rheumatology
University of Alabama
Link to Recorded Presentation
April 5, 2023
“Physical activity limitations in osteoarthritis: Biomechanical underpinnings?”
Kharma Foucher, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Kinesiology & Nutrition
University of Illinois at Chicago
Link to Recorded Presentation
October 31st, 2022
“The role of obesity in inflammatory arthritis: epidemiologic challenges.”
Joshua F. Baker, MD, MSCE
Associate Professor, Rheumatology and Epidemiology
University of Pennsylvania & Philadelphia VA Medical Center
October 19, 2022
“Treatment Stratification of Patients Based on Biomarker Profile”
Virginia Kraus, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Duke University
Recorded Presentation Not Available
June 29, 2022
“Lessons learned from a dyadic physical activity feasibility study designed for Latinos with osteoarthritis.”
Sandra Soto, PhD
May 25, 2022
Joint Presentation: UNC CCCR Speakers Series + Program For Precision Medicine in Health Care: “Machine Learning Tools for Clinical Researchers” – A Pragmatic Series
Note: There are three presentations in total for this series.
“Integrating Machine Learning Into Your Clinical Research” May 25, 1:00-3:00pm
Link to Recorded Presentations
Contact precisionmedicine@med.unc.edu with any questions.
May 18, 2022
Joint Presentation: UNC CCCR Speakers Series + Program For Precision Medicine in Health Care: “Machine Learning Tools for Clinical Researchers” – A Pragmatic Series
Note: There are three presentations in total for this series.
“Machine Learning Tools & Precision Medicine in Clinical Research” May 18, 1:00-3:00pm
Link to Recorded Presentations
Contact precisionmedicine@med.unc.edu with any questions.
May 18, 2022
“The Applied Public-Private Research enabling OsteoArthritis Clinical Headway (IMI-APPROACH) study”
Mylene Jansen, PhD
Department of Rheumatology
University of Utrecht, Netherlands
Link to Recorded Presentation
May 11, 2022
Joint Presentation: UNC CCCR Speakers Series + Program For Precision Medicine in Health Care: “Machine Learning Tools for Clinical Researchers” – A Pragmatic Series
Note: There are three presentations in total for this series.
“Machine Learning Tools & Precision Medicine in Arthritis and Autoimmunity” May 11, 9:30-11:30am
Link to Recorded Presentations
Contact precisionmedicine@med.unc.edu with any questions.
March 23, 2022
“Adherence to DMARDS, Research in Progress from the Forward Databank”
Kaleb Michaud, PhD
Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology
University of Nebraska, Medical Center
Link to Recorded Presentation
March 16, 2022
“Musculoskeletal health disparities in a time of COVID”
Tamara Huff, MD
Vigeo Orthopedics
Columbus, GA
Link to Recorded Presentation
February 16, 2022
“Statistical power and sample size determination”
Todd Schwartz, DrPH
Professor of Biostatistics, School of Nursing
UNC Chapel Hill, NC
Link to Recorded Presentation
January 26, 2022
“Applications of bioinformatics for clinical research in rheumatology”
Katherine Liao, MD
Associate Professor of Rheumatology
Harvard Medical School
Link to Recorded Presentation
December 15, 2021
“Management of the syndrome of knee pain, meniscal tear, and osteoarthritis”
Jeffrey Katz, MD
Professor of Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery
Harvard Medical School
Link to Recorded Presentation
November 10, 2021
“Recruitment in a clinical trial: lessons learned”
Jovita Newman, MA
Facilities Coordinator, Health & Exercise Department
Wake Forest University, NC
Link to Recorded Presentation
October 27, 2021
“Uncovering the intersection between social determinants and musculoskeletal health to promote health equity.”
Kate Duchowny, PhD
K99 Post Doctoral Scholar; Epidemiology & Biostatistics
University of California, San Francisco
Link to Recorded Presentation
October 6, 2021
“Rethinking Physical Activity Promotion in a 24-hour Day of People with Arthritis”
Linda Li, PhD, PT
Professor & Harold Robinson/Arthritis Society Chair
University of British Columbia
Link to Recorded Presentation
September 22, 2021
“Transforming Patient Generated Health Data Into Value For Patients, Teams and Care Delivery”
Prakash Jayakumar, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor and the Director of the Clinical Research and Outcome Measurement
Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care
University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School
Link to Recorded Presentation
August 4, 2021
“Metabolomics/Exposome to Inform Precision Nutrition”
Dr. Susan Sumner
Professor in the Department of Nutrition
UNC Gillings School of Public Health
Recording N/A
June 30, 2021
“Biomechanics and Biomarkers Associated with Progression to Osteoarthritis Following Knee Injury”
Dr. Steve Marshall
Professor of Epidemiology
– And –
Dr. Yvonne Golightly
Associate Professor of Epidemiology
Link to Recorded Presentation
March 24, 2021
“Disparities in Rheumatic Disease Care, from Description to Action”
Dr. Candace Feldman
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Link to Recorded Presentation
February 16th, 2021
“Supporting Knee OA Care With Research-Technology from Australia”
Note: This presentation was a collaborative effort between UNC & Duke University, however, it is not a “Collaborative CCCR” event.
December 9, 2020
November 18, 2020
October 14, 2020
September 1, 2020 
June 17, 2020 
May 13, 2020
May 27, 2020
March 27, 2019