President
Gretchen Oliver, Ph.D.
Gretchen is the director of the Sports Medicine & Movement Laboratory at Auburn University. She received her PhD from Texas Woman’s University in Biomechanics. She is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, a Certified Athletic Trainer, and a Corrective Exercise Specialist. She is an active member of the American College of Sports Medicine, National Athletic Training Association, National Strength and Conditioning Association, American Society of Biomechanics, International Society of Biomechanics, International Shoulder Group, and Pediatric Research in Sports Medicine. Her primary research focus is on injury prevention and performance enhancement in youth baseball and softball athletes. Among her peers, both nationally and internationally, she is known as the expert in not only youth baseball and softball injury prevention but also the biomechanics of windmill softball pitching.
“I’m interested in injury prevention and performance enhancement in baseball and softball athletes. Major focus on youth and injury prevention in both baseball and softball. Additional focus is on pain history and pitching mechanics in collegiate softball pitchers.”
Past President
Glenn Fleisig, Ph.D.
Ranked by Expertscape as the top expert in the world on baseball science and medicine, Glenn Fleisig, PhD, earned his engineering degrees from MIT, Washington University, and UAB. Dr. Fleisig is the Research Director of the American Sports Medicine Institute, where he has been since ASMI’s inception in 1987. Much of ASMI’s research under Dr. Fleisig has focused on baseball pitching biomechanics, identifying mechanics for minimizing elbow and shoulder loads while maximizing ball velocity and accuracy. Dr. Fleisig and his team have analyzed thousands of baseball pitchers, from youth level to MajorLeaguers, providing individualized recommendations for safety and performance.
Dr. Fleisig has supervised 220 student researchers (biomechanical and medical) at ASMI and also serves as an adjunct professor in biomedical engineering at
UAB.
Dr. Fleisig has published 200 scientific articles, book chapters, and books in collaboration with colleagues at ASMI and other institutions. He has delivered 350 presentations throughout the world and has been interviewed for thousands of stories by the media. In addition, Dr. Fleisig works on policy and
guidelines as chair of the USA Baseball Medical & Safety Advisory Committee, injury research advisor for Major League Baseball, and safety consultant for Little League Baseball.
“Biomechanics is the new ‘Moneyball’ in baseball. We have the opportunity and ability to enable the athletes to maximize their performance and minimize their risk of injury.”
VP Conferences
Bryson Nakamura, Ph.D.
Bryson Nakamura is the Director & Head Sport Scientist for the Stanford Baseball Science Core. Nakamura will lead baseball sports science research efforts while also supporting the Stanford Baseball team.
Nakamura previously spent six seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club in various sports science and performance roles. In his years with the Brewers, Nakamura established the Integrative Sports Performance department, which aimed to leverage sport science processes and principles to help put the Brewers at the forefront of data-driven player development methods and to enhance and support all functions of baseball operations. In his final year with the club, he was also responsible for overseeing minor league strength and conditioning in his role as the Director of Player Performance.
Prior to joining the Brewers, Nakamura was a sports science intern with the Tampa Bay Rays while completing his doctorate at the University of Oregon in the Bowerman Sports Science Clinic. At Oregon, his primary research focused on gait characteristics of lower-extremity amputees, while his clinical work focused on the assessment of biomechanical and physiological performance factors for high-level distance runners. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Puget Sound in Exercise Science where he played baseball and conducted research focused on balance and footwear product design.
“I’m interested in the maximization of on-field pitching and hitting performance.”
Conferences.ABBS@gmail.com
VP Social Media
Megan Stewart, Ph.D.
Megan Stewart is in her third season with the Milwaukee Brewer’s Performance Science. Prior to her role as a senior analyst with the Milwaukee Brewers, she was a sports biomechanist at The American Sports Medicine Institute. Megan was elected as the International Society of Biomechanics student representative from 2019-2021 as well as serves on committees for the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports and Advancing Women in Biomechanics.
Prior to working at The American Sports Medicine Institute, Megan spent time in Mississippi where she completed her B.S degree in Exercise Science at The University of Mississippi and Kentucky where she completed her M.S degree in Kinesiology and Health Promotion with an emphasis in Sports Biomechanics at The University of Kentucky.
Since then she has completed her Ph.D. in Health and Human Performance with an emphasis in Sports Biomechanics. Her research primarily focused on the upper extremity and lower extremity muscle activation as well as kinematics for fastballs and curveballs when thrown from the wind-up and stretch. Her doctoral dissertation focused on baseball hitting and vision.
“I’m interested in bridging the gap of the “Gold Standard” and new innovative methodologies to improve athlete performance while decreasing their injury risk.”
SocialMedia.ABBS@gmail.com
Treasurer
Matt Chan, Ph.D.
Dr. Matthew (Ming-Sheng) Chan is the Senior Biomechanics and Performance Scientist at the Meyer Institute of Sport (MIS) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California. Dr. Chan’s research blends human movement science and data science to understand sports-related injury mechanisms and optimize athlete performance. Dr. Chan aims to use the data-informed approach to help all athletes achieve their goals regardless of their ages and competition levels.
Before joining the MIS, Dr. Chan was the Sports Science Analyst and Lead Biomechanist with the San Francisco Giants. He collaborated across all departments to integrate baseball analytics, sports science, and biomechanics to identify and maximize baseball talents. Dr. Chan earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in Biokinesiology with an emphasis in Biomechanics. During his doctoral career, his research utilized concepts from biomechanics and motor adaptation to understand the persistence of movement deficits following sports-related injury and surgery using wearable sensors. Before obtaining his doctorates, Dr. Chan completed his M.S. in Sports Biomechanics in Taiwan and earned his B.S. in computer science.
As a board member in ABBS, Dr. Chan hopes to establish an industrial standard to best practice biomechanics with technology.
“I am interested in integrating Biomechanics and Sabermetrics to better evaluate and maximize baseball performance while mitigating injuries”
“I am interested in integrating Biomechanics with baseball analytics to better evaluate and maximize performance while mitigating injuries”
Treasurer.ABBS@gmail.com
Secretary General
Brittany Dowling, M.S.
Brittany Dowling is currently the Director of Biomechanics at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, Chicago, Illinois. She heads up the laboratory in the Sports Performance Center where they use 3D motion capture and wearable technology to evaluate athlete’s movement. Dowling collaborates with physicians, major league teams, and the MLB to conduct performance and injury research, leveraging technology to optimize player development. Her research of over 50 papers and presentations provides qualified application to players, coaches, and clinicians to improve performance and mitigate injury risk.
Prior to joining MOR, Dowling spent 7 years as Director of Biomechanics at Motus Global. Through Motus, she developed and refined the process of mass 3D motion capture shoots, created comprehensive mechanical reports on individual athlete mechanics, and provided actionable feedback to athletes and coaches. She conducted over 4000 biomechanical evaluations using motion capture for professional (MLB, NBA, NFL, and FIFA), college, high school, and youth teams. Dowling participated on a team that brought the first wearable technology approved by Major League Baseball for in-game use.
Dowling attended the University of Colorado and earned her BS in Integrative Physiology. She completed her MS in Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology from Texas Tech University. She is passionate about the human body and ways to support its functioning as a KMS instructor and practitioner.
SecretaryGeneral.ABBS@gmail.com
Director
Arnel Aguinaldo Ph.D.
Arnel Aguinaldo is an Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Athletic Training as well as the Director of the Biomechanics Laboratory at Point Loma Nazarene University. He has a BS in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego and a PhD in Health and Human Performance from Concordia University Chicago. He is a Certified Athletic Trainer and an active member of the American College of Sports Medicine, International Society of Biomechanics in Sports, and International Society of Biomechanics. He maintains a busy research load having performed and extensively published studies in the areas of baseball biomechanics, footwear research, gait analysis, and sports medicine. Dr. Aguinaldo’s research interests currently lie in the development and implementation of segmental and induced energy flow models of baseball pitching and hitting, which stems from his passion and foundational work in baseball biomechanics in general:
“Baseball-specific movements such as pitching and batting require players to move each segment of the entire body to allow efficient flow of energy through the kinetic chain in achieving optimal performance. Measuring the biomechanics of these baseball tasks allow sports scientists to objectively evaluate execution for injury risk and player development applications.”
Director
Chris Curran, Ph.D.
Chris has 7 years of experience helping athletes optimize performance and decrease injury risk, largely through biomechanical analyses. Originally from Cleveland, OH, he grew up loving many aspects of baseball. Through his time rehabbing from various pitching injuries and his coursework in Exercise Science, Chris developed a passion for quantifying his own movement and the science of biomechanics.
After completing his B.S. in Exercise Science at Grove City College in 2015, he began his graduate studies at East Carolina University. Chris completed his M.S. in Kinesiology in 2017 and his Ph.D. in Bioenergetics and Exercise Science in 2020, both with concentrations in Biomechanics and Motor Control. During his 5 years at ECU, the majority of his work was focused on understanding changes in tissue properties and injury risk in baseball pitchers using cutting-edge ultrasound techniques and motion capture.
Since graduating from ECU in the Spring of 2020, Chris has worked as a biomechanist in Major League Baseball, first for the Texas Rangers and now the Minnesota Twins organizations. His primary roles have included analyzing player movement data and working to integrate biomechanics data within larger sports science programs.Chris and his wife, Marie, live in Durham, NC with their son, Beckett. Outside of work they enjoy hiking, traveling, and spending time outdoors with their two dogs, Griffey and Sampson.
“Chris became interested in baseball biomechanics because of the ability to quantify change in a sport that all too often relied on visual evaluation and qualitative feedback. As the field has, and will continue to grow he believes we have the ability to influence performance optimization and injury risk evaluation on an individual player level with more accuracy than has ever been available before”
DIRECTOR
Georgia Giblin, Ph.D.
Georgia Giblin is currently the Director, Performance Science with the Detroit Tigers. Georgia oversees the Performance Science department and is responsible for researching, planning, and implementing performance science solutions. She works across multiple departments within the organization with the goal of optimizing player performance and mitigating injury risk. Prior to joining the Tigers, Georgia spent one year at the University of Michigan as a post-doctoral fellow. Before moving to the US, Georgia spent 4 years as a biomechanist at the Queensland Academy of Sport, supporting Australia’s Olympic athletes across Track & Field, Softball, Triathlon, and Archery. Georgia completed her Ph.D. in Biomechanics and Motor Learning at Victoria University in Melbourne, in partnership with Tennis Australia where she investigated the relationship between how coaches perceived technical changes in movement, and subsequently how athletes implement varying levels of feedback into their movement patterns.
“I believe biomechanics in baseball is the next big frontier, but the real value lies in how we as biomechanists can translate the information to create actionable changes with our coaches and players.”
DIRECTOR
Ben Hansen, B.S.
Ben Hansen is currently the Director- Performance Technology for the New York Mets. Prior to joining the Mets, Hansen worked as Product Engineering Lead- AI & Sports Technology for Intel, Senior Biomechanical Engineer for the Chicago White Sox, CTO for Motus Global, and as a Motion Capture Engineer for the Milwaukee Brewers.
Hansen has a B.S. in biomedical engineering and mathematics from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and was a DIII baseball pitcher. During his Ph.D. studies at Marquette University (biomedical engineering), Hansen was a motion capture technician for the Milwaukee Brewers and was a summer intern at the American Sports Medicine Institute.
Hansen currently lives in Long Island, NY with his fiancé Steph Armijo and their 3 children, Jack, Oliver, and Henry.
DIRECTOR
Kristen Nicholson, Ph.D.
Kristen Nicholson, PhD, joined the Wake Forest pitching lab staff in October 2018 as the director of the lab and lead of biomechanics research. She earned her undergraduate in Mathematical Science from Clemson University in 2010 and her MS and PhD in Biomechanics and Movement Science from the University of Delaware in 2015. Dr. Nicholson wrote her dissertation on a mathematical model for measuring scapular motion and became an expert in upper extremity biomechanics.
While at the University of Delaware, Dr. Nicholson was the project lead on a collaborative project between US Figure Skating, the University of Delaware, and C-Motion. The project was designed to facilitate the performance of triple and quad revolution jumps by Olympic and pre-Olympic skaters.
For three years before coming to Wake Forest, Dr. Nicholson worked as a biomechanical research engineer at Nemours/A. I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware. During this time she augmented her clinical skills while developing her own research interests. Dr. Nicholson has a particular interest in the development of non-invasive tools and methods for assessing kinematics and implementing scapular kinematics in baseball pitching.
Dr. Nicholson is currently an Assistant Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“I’m interested in optimizing pitching performance while reducing injury risk, using motion capture and biomechanics as a player development tool, and implementing scapular kinematics in baseball pitching”
DIRECTOR
Jon Slowik, Ph.D.
Jon Slowik is a Research Biomechanist at the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI). He works on a wide variety of sports biomechanics projects, incorporating motion capture, advanced modeling capabilities, and/or computer simulation techniques. The primary goals of his research are 1) to reduce sports-related injuries and 2) to optimize on-field performance. In addition to his role in designing and executing these research studies, he also leads the development of innovative technologies for data collection, processing, and analysis.
Jon received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006 and joined Orbital Sciences Corporation, working on the mechanical design of geosynchronous communication satellites. Jon left Orbital to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering while a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a member of the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory. His research focused on the biomechanics of wheelchair propulsion with the goal of reducing upper extremity pain and injury. Following a brief term as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh (Human Engineering Research Laboratories), he joined ASMI in late 2016.
“I’m interested in reducing sports-related injuries while also optimizing on-field performance.”
DIRECTOR
Ethan Stewart, M.S.
Ethan Stewart is in his first season as the Lead Sport Scientist & Biomechanist with the Oakland Athletics. He was the Applied Biomechanist for the Cincinnati Reds during the 2022 season and spent the 2020 – 2021 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles as the Player Performance Facilitator. Prior to his time with the Orioles, Ethan spent two seasons as a Sports Science intern in the Gulf Coast League for the Tampa Bay Rays, as well as teaching biomechanics at the collegiate level. Originally from Carrollton, KY, Ethan obtained his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and his master’s degree in kinesiology (biomechanics) from the University of Kentucky. He is currently completing his doctoral work in exercise science (biomechanics) at Mississippi State University. Ethan currently lives in Peoria, AZ with his wife, Megan.
“My passion is helping athletes reach their maximum potential on the field while minimizing thier injury risk.”
DIRECTOR
Jessica Talmage, Ph.D.
Jessica Talmage is an Assistant Professor at Northern State University in their Sports Sciences department. She is also the Director of their Human Performance Laboratory. As director of the Human Performance lab she works with multiple individuals such as the athletes, coaches, trainers, therapist, doctors, and strength and conditioning staff to help bridge the gap between the different areas of practice.
Jessica received her BS in Exercise Physiology in 2017 from East Carolina University and her MS and PhD in Biomechanics from Auburn University in 2018 and 2021 respectively. During her time at Auburn, she conducted research in the Sports Medicine & Movement Laboratory conducting application-based injury prevention and performance enhancement research in baseball and softball athletes. As director of her own lab she plans to continue to conduct application-based research in which results can directly be applied on the field, strength room, or training room.
“I became interested in baseball biomechanics because I saw it as an opportunity to combine multiple areas of interest (sports, anatomy, science, etc.) without having to pick a specific path. Additionally, I get the opportunity to work with athletes on a daily basis and collaborate with doctors, therapists, trainers, and strength and conditioning staff to solve problems and help athletes achieve their maximum potential.”
ABBS 