Assistant Director
Amanda Botticello, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Director in the Centers for Spinal Cord Injury Research and Outcomes & Assessment Research at Kessler Foundation. Dr. Botticello trained in social epidemiology and biostatistics in the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has more than 15 years of experience analyzing large datasets, developing surveys, and designing quantitative and qualitative research studies. Her research focuses on advancing the science of the social determinants of health, understanding the relationship between disability and environmental factors, and assessing long-term psychosocial outcomes for people with disabilities. She has served as principal and co-investigator on projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute on Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, and the Reitman Foundation. Dr. Botticello is an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
Dr. Botticello’ s current research portfolio involves numerous studies in adult and pediatric rehabilitation populations. In adults, her studies include research using mapped activity space and ecological momentary assessment to understand environmental barriers and individual strategies for community participation among adults with mobility impairments; a multisite survey of migration and housing instability after traumatic injury; and a randomized controlled trial of an intervention to improve social and emotional functioning after spinal cord injury. In children, she is collaborating with Children’s Specialized Hospital on a mixed methods investigation of the process of school integration for children with special health care needs after rehabilitation, and a study of the recovery trajectories of infants who receive inpatient medical rehabilitation for neonatal abstinence syndrome. Dr. Botticello is a co-investigator for the Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System (NNJSCIS), part of the national network of federally funded Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) and has led data collection and analysis of the NNJSCIS database since 2007. Her research focuses on diverse types of impairment (psychiatric, cognitive, and physical disability) affecting different medical rehabilitation populations (spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and pediatric) and spanning the life course (children, adolescents, adults, and older adults). Her professional service includes Methodology Associate Editor for the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine since 2015.