Kessler Foundation publishes annual reports, newsletters, and other informative pieces for consumer and professional audiences. Please see below for our recent publications. For news, visit Kessler Foundation's news page.
Annual Reports:
Kessler Foundation's 2010 Annual Report
Kessler Foundation's 2009 Annual Report
Kessler Foundation's 2009 Interactive Annual Report (features video clips, a slide show, and audio clips from Kessler Foundation's senior staff and research scientists that highlight Kessler Foundation's research and program developments)
Traumatic Brain Injury Newsletter:
TBI News & Views Summer 2011
Kessler Foundation's possABILITIES e-Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 1:
Document Management Business for People with Disabilities
Seeing is Believing
From Running to Groundbreaking Research
A Letter from a Donor
Assistant Secretary Martinez Meets with Disability Employment Leaders at Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation Announces $2.7 Million in Grants to Increase Employment for People with Disabilities
Kessler Foundation Reports Greater Brain Activation after Cognitive Rehabilitation for MS
Neuroscientist TBI Director Jordan Grafman, PhD, Delivers 2nd Annual Cilo Lecture
Kessler Foundation Reports Advance in Early Diagnosis of Spatial Neglect after Stroke
Kessler Foundation Neuroscientist Receives Humboldt Research Award
New Video Highlights Pilot Testing of Ekso Exoskeleton
Kessler Foundation's Winter 2011 e-Newsletter:
A Time for Others
One Holiday Card, A Coincidence, & A Lifetime of Memories
Donor Spotlight: Mel Wallerstein
Youngest Board Member Dedicated to Expanding Kessler Foundation’s Reach
Kessler Foundation's Fall 2011 e-Newsletter:
Kessler Foundation Donor Spotlight: Kreitman Family Honors Grandson’s Lesson to ThinkFirst
‘Still Playing’ after a Traumatic Brain Injury
Kessler Foundation’s First Six Participants Walk with Robotics
Employee Spotlight: Jordan Grafman, PhD
Disability Mentoring Day Leaves Imprints on Everyone
Kessler Foundation's 10th Annual Stroll ‘N Roll Honors Abilities
Kessler Foundation's Summer 2011 e-Newsletter:
Back on their Feet
The BEST Interns
Traveling the Road of Dreams
Employee Spotlight - Angela Smith
Document Management Business for People with Disabilities
What if you have an idea for a business? Will you take that risk with a staff primarily made up of people with disabilities? Kessler Foundation does. Hudson Community Enterprises (HCE), a social enterprise in Jersey City, had the idea, and with the help of Kessler Foundation funding, now employs close to 400 individuals with disabilities while providing needed services to the community. With remarkable success, HCE has grown into a $5 million business.
Founded in 1957 as a community rehabilitation program, HCE has successfully utilized Foundation grant funding to create and expand its employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Hiring executives with business experience was key to HCE’s exceptional growth in a poor economy. HCE realized the importance of hiring people with extensive business management experience to lead it down the road of success. In developing a strategic business plan, HCE closely followed industry trends and adjusted its plan accordingly.
In 2005, HCE identified a gap in the business market that correlated with the “green” and technological trends in society. There was an increased need for companies to convert paper archives to secure, searchable digital databases. But how to start a business in an economy that wasn’t creating jobs? As a social enterprise, HCE had an advantage. It offered competitive bidding to fulfill the needs of each business.
“Hudson Community Enterprises combines for-profit sensibilities with a non-profit mission,” said Maureen Walliser, president and chief executive officer for HCE. “We let our great business minds manage the day-to-day operations and strategize for long-term growth. Our employees with disabilities execute that vision.”
Convinced of the value in HCE’s business model and potential sustainability, Kessler Foundation awarded HCE its first Signature Employment Grant to provide the necessary funding to create a new venture. Signature Grants are the largest grants that the Foundation awards to fund innovative ideas and pilot projects designed to increase the employment rate for people with disabilities.
With the monies, HCE opened Metro Scanning, a division of the social enterprise. Starting with ten employees, a small warehouse, a few trucks, and basic scanning equipment for small projects, the new operation grew in to a $900,000 business within the first nine months.
In 2008, HCE received a second Signature Grant from Kessler Foundation to expand the business. Small scanning projects turned into a full document management service. Offering services that include document imaging, records management consulting, secure document destruction, software development, and business process improvement, placed HCE at the forefront of business needs.
HCE currently employs more than 400 individuals, 377 with disabilities. Potential employees undergo a vocational evaluation to determine whether they have the interest and ability to become a document specialist. If qualified, they attend a rigorous nine-week training program that covers every aspect of document management.
With an integrated workforce, employees with disabilities have full health benefits—the same as any other employee. Jobs are available at all career and 
experience levels—from entry level to managerial positions—at competitive salaries and with room for growth.
Jose Hornado is a records management specialist. His tasks include document preparation and repair, indexing and verifying data, and comparing original documents against the scanned documents to ensure accuracy and completeness. Prior to his job at HCE, Jose struggled to find employment. “Working at HCE gives me something useful to do with my life and enables me to earn a living. I’m very happy and grateful for that,” said Jose. “Earning a paycheck gives me a sense of accomplishment.” In his spare time, this 27 year old is involved with the Junior Chamber of Commerce, a worldwide leadership organization. He’s on his way to a thriving career.
HCE is opening up approximately 3 million images of mail a year, and that’s for only two clients. Sal Cappola, vice president of strategic accounts at HCE is always alert to opportunities to develop new business. For example, one existing client, a department of a government agency, has many more records that need to be scanned and archived. With the potential for fifty new contracts, it’s important to have sufficient capacity. Thanks to solid planning, HCE now has the capacity to process more than 12 million images.
“Kessler Foundation invests in human capital,” said Salvatore Cappola. “Their return on investment is measured in jobs created for people with disabilities. We wanted to try this new avenue of a mail supported scanning system, but it would have been hard without the support of Kessler Foundation.”
HCE recently opened an office in Newark, NJ in addition to its two offices in Jersey City. For the 2011 grant cycle, Kessler Foundation awarded HCE with a third Signature Employment Grant, which will allow the organization to open an office in Trenton to target the businesses of state agencies. The plan is to develop pre-packaged services to fit the needs and budgets of smaller companies. Another goal is to expand the business into the private sector. No matter where their strategy takes them, HCE will continue to create jobs for individuals with disabilities.
“Kessler Foundation is pleased that HCE has evolved into a self sustaining and expanding social enterprise,” said Elaine Katz, vice president of Grants & Special Initiatives at the Foundation. “It is a model for employing people with disabilities and how to develop and sustain a business, using business expertise for a non-profit organization. This is a stellar example of successful implementation of our Signature Employment Grants.”
Help Kessler Foundation continue to expand employment opportunities for the 54 million Americans with disabilities and help us write a new story! 
Every day, Kessler Foundation applies the latest technologies in research that improves the quality of life for people with disabilities. Our scientists have discovered ways to improve thinking, learning, and memory retention for people with impairments caused by multiple sclerosis (MS) or brain injury. The next step is demonstrating how these improvements lead to real gains for people at home, work, and in their communities. Creating environments to test these new strategies will promote acceptance in cognitive rehabilitation programs as well as pave the way for insurance reimbursement eligibility. Clinical virtual reality is a promising new technology, allowing for a safe testing environment as well as an unbiased look at how people perform in simulated situations.
Thanks to a new partnership with the University of Southern California (USC), Kessler Foundation is applying virtual reality (VR) to clinical research. By using Virtual Office software developed at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, researchers are incorporating ‘real life’ assessments in their evaluations.
“Virtual reality really has the potential to revolutionize how we assess people’s cognitive abilities and how much we can learn about how they are performing in their daily lives,” said Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD director of Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research at Kessler Foundation.
The virtual office provides a realistic setting for performing every day job tasks. Each participant has a cubicle, 
answers phone calls and emails, prioritizes tasks, makes business decisions, organizes documents, and sorts through files to locate documents. All of this happens in an environment with typical office distractions such as a truck passing by the window, coworkers walking around the office, and other phones ringing. While most of us are able to concentrate despite these types of office noises, for people with brain injuries or MS, these distractions can severely interfere with their ability to stay on task.
Study participants will perform virtual office tasks before and after they receive the study treatment. “We’ll be able to determine how performance on an activity, such as an everyday office duty, improves over time and after treatment,” explained Denise Krch, PhD research scientist at the Foundation. This will allow improvements on daily activities to be scientifically measured for the first time.
Currently in the testing phase, Dr. Krch is analyzing the software, gathering input from volunteers, and sending feedback to the developer to make improvements. In the coming weeks, Kessler Foundation will be incorporating VR into its research protocols for MS and traumatic brain injury.
Albert "Skip" Rizzo, PhD associate director of the Institute for Creative Technologies, pioneered the development of VR for use in rehabilitation. According to Dr. Rizzo, “The beauty of VR is that the technology is relatively inexpensive and more widely available.” The type of virtual reality research being conducted at Kessler Foundation is aimed at developing effective, home-based rehabilitation tools that are cost-effective and widely available.
We often think of VR as just being something "cool." But, now, it's more than cool. It is a tool that may one day make rehabilitation accessible to those seeking to improve their quality of life.
Help Kessler Foundation continue its research and write a new story!
From Running to Groundbreaking Research
What if you could reap the benefits of exercise just by thinking about it? How much of an impact would that have on your life? Guang Yue, PhD, director of Human Performance and Engineering Research at Kessler Foundation, investigates how the brain controls movement.
His interest in movement began when he was a college athlete. “As a middle distance runner, I was always fascinated by our ability to move,” explained Dr. Yue. “This led to my interest in helping those who have lost the ability due to injury or disease.”
Kessler Foundation welcomed Dr. Yue in January 2012. With more than 18 years of experience, Dr. Yue studies the role of the central nervous system in movement and muscle function. He also examines the brain’s reaction to injury, disease, and medical treatment. His research promises to benefit people with multiple sclerosis, stroke, and injuries to the brain and spinal cord.
“A voluntary movement begins in the brain with the intention to move,” he explained. The intent passes through a series of pathways of neurons in the brain. Each muscle is directly controlled by a specific group of motor neurons in the spinal cord. The brain recruits the number of neurons needed to trigger the movement and determines the necessary level of quickness and intensity. “Once the movement occurs, information sensed by sensory organs such as the eye and receptors in the muscle, joint, and skin notifies the brain of the status of the ongoing movement. The brain compares this information with the intended movement in an effort to correct any errors. An injury or disease that affects any part of this chain will interfere with a person’s ability to move normally,” Dr. Yue noted.
To find solutions to movement abnormalities, Dr. Yue utilizes non-invasive electrophysiological and imaging techniques. His goals are to restore or improve motor function through targeted therapies or new technologies.
In a groundbreaking study, he discovered that people can gain strength through imagery training. When 
individuals lift weights, for example, they gain muscle strength. But if they just sit and think about lifting the weight--in an effort to activate those brain cells controlling strong muscle contractions--without letting the contraction occur, the muscles will also gain some strength. “Eventually, the trained brain can send a stronger signal through the motor neurons in the spinal cord to the muscle, recruiting more muscle fibers to participate in the contraction and activating them to higher intensity, leading to greater force,” stated Dr. Yue. This effect is somewhat similar to that used by athletes who picture themselves excelling in big games. They develop a game plan and mentally execute it. The power of visualization!
This type of research is especially relevant to people unable to participate in conventional strength building exercises. “They can use their minds to train the central motor system with no or low muscular activities to gain or maintain strength,” he said.
Dr. Yue is also exploring causes for muscle fatigue. When individuals feel fatigued and unable to use more strength, it may be that their brains are delivering poor signals to their muscles. It may be possible to develop treatments that improve mobility by restoring lost brain function.
Dr. Yue’s expertise is a key addition to Kessler Foundation’s research team. Vice President for Research, John DeLuca, PhD, said, “Dr. Yue bridges the gap between our physical and cognitive research. Our scientists understand the muscle’s role in movement. Tying in that expertise with how the brain rebuilds strength will accelerate our discoveries that improve quality of life for individuals with physical disabilities.”
Foundation researchers are studying the effects the LokomatPro V6 has on improving function in individuals with spinal cord injury and other neurological conditions. The Lokomat combines strength building with visualization by having robotic technology move a person’s legs over a treadmill in a repetitive walking motion while having an interactive screen for augmented feedback in front of the user. With the screen, participants are able to visualize how they’re walking in a virtual environment, which causes them to further their efforts. Dr. Yue will oversee this project as well as the resuming Ekso trials in 2012. He is also dedicated to quickly translating and disseminating research to inform the public of Kessler Foundation’s discoveries.
In his free time, Dr. Yue maintains his passion for utilizing strength and mobility. He enjoys hiking, jogging, and is a sports enthusiast. We are proud to welcome Dr. Yue to the Kessler Foundation family!
Support Dr. Yue’s research and help us write a new story.
February 8, 2012
Kessler Foundation
300 Executive Drive, Suite 70
West Orange, NJ 07052
Dear Kessler Staff,
I’m writing and submitting a donation on behalf of four caring and compassionate college students.
Peter S., Richard S., Evan W. & Ross W. have gone Christmas Caroling on Christmas Eve for the past six years. It started as a joke to go singing around the neighborhood with the words of four songs printed on a piece of paper. However, they found those four songs spread more Christmas cheer than they could have imagined. People showed their appreciation by giving them cookies, candy and money, which they donated to a charity.
The following year the boys weren’t going to go caroling. Ross had a broken leg and there was a tragedy in their school where two of their classmates, Tanner Birch & Kyleigh D'Alessio, were killed in an automobile accident on December 21, 2006. On Christmas Eve they decided to go in memory of their classmates and accept donations for the Tanner Birch & Kyleigh D'Alessio Memorial Scholarship Funds. Ross carried the donation bag and “crutched” from house to house! They were able to make a nice donation to the Scholarship Funds and learned they could make more of a difference by taking action. Since then they have chosen a different charity each year. This year they decided to carol for Kessler Foundation.
Evan attends East Carolina University & Ross goes to Florida State University. Peter and Richard are both Rutgers University students. As Rutgers Alumni we have family season Football tickets and were at the Rutgers vs. Army game where Eric LeGrand was injured. We were also at the Rutgers vs. WVA game, where Eric led the team onto the field. His inspiration exceeds words.
The other connection to Kessler is through Dave W., who was injured in August and resided at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation until recently. Dave is a neighbor and fellow parishioner. His positive attitude is motivational . . . Truly an amazing man!
Your staff at Kessler is not only professional but they motivate, encourage and give hope in very difficult situations. The work all of you do makes a difference in many lives. I’m happy Peter, Richard, Evan and Ross were able to be a small part of the bigger picture.
Sincerely,
Barbara Schmitt
