Mark R. Lovell, Ph.D., joined UPMC Health System in August 2000 as Director of the new UPMC Center for Sports Medicine Concussion Program. Under his direction, the program focuses on the diagnosis and management of sports-related concussions in athletes of all levels. A nationally renowned sports concussion researcher, Dr. Lovell founded the neuropsychological testing programs for the National Football League and serves as a consultant to the league and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He also co-directed the National Hockey League's Neuropsychology program from 1997 to 2007 and currently serves as a consultant to the league. Dr. Lovell oversees the neuropsychological testing programs for the Indianapolis Racing League, CHAMP Car Racing, the US Ski Team and numerous other sports organizations nationally and internationally. His work involves researching the neurocognitive effects of sports concussion and developing better methods of post-concussion evaluation to determine when it is safe for an athlete to return to sports following a concussion.

In addition to working with professional and collegiate athletes, Dr. Lovell and the UPMC team are helping to make a sophisticated and standardized concussion evaluation program available to high school and younger athletes nationwide. Partnering with UPMC and Pittsburgh Steelers team neurosurgeon Joseph Maroon, M.D., Dr. Lovell has spent the past decade developing the first computerized testing system to evaluate the severity of concussions in athletes and provide a more accurate determination of when an athlete can safely return to sports following a concussion. The system is called ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing). It is being used already by the Pittsburgh Steelers and by over 400 college and high school sports teams around the country as part of studies funded by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Academy of Neuropsychology. Dr. Lovell is a member of the Vienna and Prague International Consensus conferences on Sports-related concussion, chartered by the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and the International Ice Hockey Federation. Dr. Lovell has recently been named a finalist for the Pittsburgh Business Times 'Heroes of Health Care' Award for his work in the prevention and treatment of concussion.

Before joining UPMC, Dr. Lovell was the Director of Neuropsychology at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit since 1996. Prior to that, he had been Director of Neuropsychology and Chief of Neuropsychological Services at Allegheny General Hospital. He also has had academic appointments as Associate Professor of Psychology at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University - Allegheny Campus, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at West Virginia University, and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology in Education at the University of Pittsburgh. His current academic appointment is Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery within the Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Lovell also holds the academic title of Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Lovell received a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology at Northern Michigan University in 1977 and was given the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003. He completed his doctoral degree in clinical psychology at the Finch University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School in 1984. Lovell then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Nebraska Medical School in 1985. In 1997, he graduated from the Leadership Development Program at the Henry Ford Health System. A diplomat of the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology and fellow of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Dr. Lovell also is a member of the International Neuropsychological Society, American Psychological Association, American Neuropsychiatric Association, Brain Injury Association, Pennsylvania Psychological Association. He is a reviewer for the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, The British Journal of Sports Medicine, Neuropsychology, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience and guest reviewer for Clinical Psychology Review and The Clinical Neuropsychologist. Dr. Lovell was chairman of the NHL's Neuropsychology Advisory Board from 1997-2007 and is currently a consultant to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He continues to serve as a consultant to the NHL. He has co-authored nineht textbooks and numerous textbook chapters and is a frequent publisher of scientific journal articles as well as a frequent presenter at professional meetings around the world.

Dr. Lovell and his family reside in Mt. Lebanon, Pa.

Michael (Micky) Collins, Ph.D., a nationally renowned sports concussion clinician and researcher, joined the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program as assistant director when the program was established in September, 2000, under the direction of Dr. Mark Lovell.

In 1999, Dr. Collins was the author of two major multi-site studies involving the effects of concussion and return-to-play evaluation methods. These studies were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Dr. Collins continues to administer and oversee clinical programs for concussion management for sports teams at several major colleges, universities, and high schools throughout the country. He is a clinical consultant to the Pittsburgh Steelers, NFL Europa, Major League Baseball, USA Lacrosse, USA Rugby, and to several high school, collegiate, and professional sports organizations both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Collins is a co-founder of ImPACT, a computerized neurocognitive testing system that evaluates the severity of concussion in athletes and provides a more accurate determination of when an athlete can safely return to sports following a concussion.

Dr. Collins received his bachelor’s degree in psychology and biology at the University of Southern Maine in 1991, his master’s degree in psychology at Michigan State University in 1995, and his doctorate degree in clinical psychology at Michigan State in 1998. He subsequently completed a clinical neuropsychology internship at the University of Florida and a neuropsychology fellowshihp at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.

He has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in sports medicine and other medical journals and is a frequently invited presenter on the topic of sports concussions at national and international meetings. He has co-authored a sports concussion textbook and is a reviewer for JAMA, Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, American Journal of Sports Medicine, as well as on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Athletic Training Association. Dr. Collins was recently the lead co-author on the Center’s for Disease Control- Concusson Toolkit for Physicians that will be disseminated to all physicians in specific specialty areas. In 2005, Dr. Collins was also the recipient of the “Innovations in Treatment Award” granted by the North American Brain Injury Society.

A two-year winner of the New England Pepsi-Cola Scholar/Athlete of the Year Award, Dr. Collins played for the University of Southern Maine in the 1989 NCAA Baseball College World Series.

Dr. Collins resides in the Mt. Lebanon neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

Joseph Charles Maroon was born in Wheeling, West Virginia on May 26, 1940. He was educated in the parochial schools in Bellaire, Ohio where his athletic abilities earned him an athletic scholarship to the University of Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana. As an undergraduate he was selected as a Scholastic All American in Football in Indiana. Following his undergraduate education, he obtained his medical and neurosurgical training at Indiana University, Georgetown University, Oxford University in England and a microsurgical Fellowship at the University of Vermont under R.M. Peardon Donaghy. He began his practice at the University of Pittsburgh in 1972 and was promoted to Professor and Director of Neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh-Presbyterian University Hospital.

In 1984, he joined Allegheny General Hospital as Chairman of Neurosurgery and in 1995 assumed the additional role as Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Allegheny General Hospital/Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1999 he was recruited back to the University of Pittsburgh where he was appointed Vice Chairman and Professor of the Department of Neurological Surgery and also designated the Dennis and Rose Heindl Scholar in Neurosciences.

He has been the team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers Football Club for the past 20 years and has developed innovated programs for the management of athletes with cerebral concussions. ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) was developed by Dr. Maroon and his colleague, neuropsychologist Mark Lovell, Ph.D. It is the first computerized evaluation system used that may help determine concussion severity as well as if and when it is safe for an athlete to return to contact sports. This program has now been adopted by the NFL, NHL, some teams in the NBA and over 200 high schools and colleges throughout the United States.

His research into brain tumors and diseases of the spine have lead to many innovative techniques for diagnosing and treating these disorders. He has operated on over 1,000 pituitary tumors and now uses an endoscopic/microscopic approach.

In 1986, he was honored by his peers when they elected him President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the largest society of neurosurgeons in North America. He has since been honored for his contributions in neurosurgery by the national neurosurgical societies of many foreign countries including Japan, Korea, Thailand, Egypt, Brazil and Lebanon. His publications number more than 225 and he is on the editorial board of five medical journals. He has authored or co-authored 40 book chapters and edited 3 books. He is on three neurological journal editorial boards and has introduced microsurgical and percutaneous techniques for the minimally invasive treatment of herniated lumbar discs.

In 2002, he was nominated a Health Care Hero Lifetime Achievement Award finalist by the Pittsburgh Business Times and was listed as one of 'America's Best Neurosurgeons' in the publication of America's Best Doctors.

Despite his busy professional schedule, Dr. Maroon has maintained his athletic interest by competing in over 50 triathlon events including Ironman triathlons (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run) in Hawaii (1993), Canada (1995), New Zealand (1997) and Europe (2000). In 1999 he, along with Joe Montana and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar were inducted into the Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame for his athletic accomplishments and contributions to sports medicine.

Ms. Russo joined the ImPACT team in May 2002 and has been spearheading the corporate advancement of the ImPACT Program.

She is responsible for the firm's overall marketing and strategic planning programs, and corporate and client communications. She focuses much of her time on identifying customer needs, marketing the software, and coordinating sales and training workshops for ImPACT's many clients and sales representatives. She also serves as the media and public relations contact for the company.

The major area of emphasis during Ms. Russo's tenure at ImPACT Applications, Inc. has been the development and enhancement of the ImPACT marketing materials, websites, and branding efforts. Over the years, Labiba has developed and executed key marketing initiatives and that led to the establishment of ImPACT as the leading product in concussion management software.

Ms. Russo graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1993 and later attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, with and emphasis on Design and Business training. She has worked on many large marketing projects in the Pittsburgh and Ft. Lauderdale areas and has a successful background in public relations, marketing, and customer service. Ms. Russo is a member of the American Marketing Association and has been an active participant for many charity events, including the American Cancer Society's annual Pittsburgh golf outing.

Ms. Russo works in the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida office.

Mr. Coombs is the Chief Operating Officer for ImPACT, joining in June 2009. Ron manages the business development, operations, financial reporting, and strategic planning.

Previously, Ron was a manager in the Project Management Office, for BNY Mellon, and worked with senior management to create and implement integration plans resulting from the merger of The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial.

Ron was the Chief Financial Officer of Mellon Ventures, Inc., a $1.4 billion private equity firm affiliated with Mellon Financial Corporation. In 1996 with the founding partner, Ron created Mellon Ventures and continued managing the financial reporting, operations and growth into four nationwide offices, until Mellon Ventures' sale in December, 2006.

In addition to his experience as CFO, Ron held multiple positions at Mellon Financial Corporation. He served as a Senior Project Leader in Mellon’s Strategic Planning Department as well as the administrative and operations manager for the Real Estate Credit Recovery Department, an entity that successfully restructured and disposed of a commercial real estate portfolio of over $1.4 Billion.

Ron is a Certified Public Accountant and received his Bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Mr. Tauchen graduated from the University of Iowa in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering. Mr. Tauchen works very closely with PJ Flanagan on the software development and programming, technical support, computer repair services, and distribution of the ImPACT Software. Mr. Tauchen's introduction to sports related computer programming came in 1998 with Dr. John Powell at Med Sports Systems. In 2000, he joined ImPACT and the FlanTech Computer Services Team as a support specialist and computer programmer.

Professor Ann Edwards, is the Director of the National Sports Concussion Initiative – South Africa/UK (NSCI-SA/UK), in the Department of Psychology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, and Director of ImPACT-South Africa. She obtained her Clinical Masters Degree cum laude at the University of Cape Town, where she also received the J.G. Taylor award for outstanding research in Psychology. In 2006 she was awarded the Rhodes University Amnesty International Women of the Year Award for her outstanding achievement as a Senior Researcher. Her career as a Neuropsychologist commenced with the post of Clinical Psychologist/Lecturer in the Department of Neurosurgery, Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town. Subsequently, Professor Edwards completed her Ph.D thesis under the supervision of Professor Paul Satz, then Chief Neuropsychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), whilst completing a one year research fellowship on the UCLA Brain Injury Research Centre (BIRC) project. She is a credentialed member of the South African Clinical Neuropsychological Association (SACNA), and has contributed as an executive member of this organization for many years.

Professor Edwards is involved in several on-going research projects supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and a Rhodes University Council Grant, including (i) the study of culturally relevant normative data on commonly employed psychometric tests, and (ii) investigation into the cumulative neuropsychological effects of mild traumatic brain injury in Rugby Union, the latter being in collaboration with Professor Tim Noakes, Director of the MRC/UCT Exercise and Research Unit at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town. Under the auspices of NSCI and ImPACT-SA, Professor Edwards has established a national network of more than 20 neuropsychologists in the leading metropolitan areas in South Africa, who are implementing computer-based concussion management programmes in Rugby Union using the ImPACT test, for both research and commercial purposes, from school through to professional levels of play. She is also involved in concussion management using ImPACT for UK professional soccer teams.

In her research areas, Professor Edwards has supervised multiple postgraduate masters and doctoral theses on concussion management using ImPACT. This includes a completed Afrikaans translation, and a projected Xhosa translation and norming of the programme. She has obtained registration of the ImPACT test with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), and currently ImPACT is the only computerized test that has been approved for use in the concussion management arena in the country. She has presented regularly at local and international conferences, published in leading international journals in Neuropsychology, and is a regular participant on scientific review panels for conference presentations, journal articles and research funding. She has organized and/or been an invited speaker at many symposiums on cross-cultural research or sports concussion nationally and internationally.


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Victoria Whitefield-Alexander received her Masters Degree in Psychology at the University of Cape Town after completing an internship in the Department of Neurology at Groote Schuur Hospital, and a dissertation on the “Quality of Life in Epilepsy”. Against this background she was awarded an NRF (National Research Foundation) Doctoral bursary. She completed her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Ann Edwards at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa on the long-term and cumulative effects of mild traumatic brain injury amongst high school contact sports players, in collaboration with Sports Scientist Professor Tim Noakes, Director, MRC/UCT Exercise and Research Unit, and Professor Mark Lovell, Director of the Sports Medicine Concussion Programme at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, USA. She has co-authored a number of articles and conference presentations on the neurocognitive sequelae of sports concussion in the national and international arenas.

The ImPACT programme is currently endorsed by the South African Rugby BokSmart programme, and the SharkSmart and Energi Wellness programmes, being the first and only registered tool of its kind available for the neurocognitive evaluation of concussed athletes in South Africa. Under these auspices, Dr Alexander provides clinical ImPACT services at the Crescent Clinic in Claremont, Cape Town South Africa, and by special arrangement at the Sports Science Orthopaedic Clinic in Newlands, Cape Town South Africa. This forms part of a comprehensive concussion management programme which services schools, clubs and universities in the Western Cape Province. She also operates as chief liaison officer for ImPACT-South Africa, and chief research officer providing technical assistance for the implementation of ImPACT on the nation wide and UK concussion management projects currently in progress under the coordination of Professor Ann Edwards. She has been instrumental in facilitating the mandatory use of ImPACT for concussion management of players of Rugby Union in a number of leading South African schools and establishing collaborative links between Impact South Africa, the Energi Wellness Programme and Shark Smart.

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