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SURVIVOR
Andrew Santos
Andrew is 22 and even though he had an AVM and aneurysm rupture at 17 he hasn’t let that change his outlook on life. He loves joking around and doesn’t let the things he can’t do stop him. He has found a passion encouraging and helping others who face challenges like he has. He volunteers at SCI Fit which is a spinal cord injury functional integrated therapy rehabilitation that he actually went to for some of his recovery. He helps there during the week and loves every minute of it. He loves sharing his story with other patients and encourages them to never give up, that anything is possible and he is living proof. He loves playing Call of Duty and Fortnite. He likes playing basketball and plays golf as well. Andrew also has a dog named Buddy who is his pride and joy.
CLINICIAN
Dr. Casey Nesbit
Laura Greiss Hess, PhD, OTR/L
Dr. Casey Nesbit received her BS in Physical Therapy from Virginia Commonwealth University, MS and DSc in Rehabilitation Sciences from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and DPT from Marymount University. She is an American Physical Therapy Association Board Certified Pediatric Clinical Specialist with 41 years of experience. Her clinical experience includes part time work over the past 17 years in Malawi, Africa. Currently, she is an Associate Professor in the UCSF/SFSU Graduate Program in Physical Therapy. Her research interests include pediatric stroke, valuation of disability in developing countries, health equity, clinical reasoning, and effectiveness of training programs for community health workers. She continues to practice at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital at Mission Bay, works with the Pediatric Neurorecovery clinic, and is a consultant for the American Stroke Association – Bugher Centers of Excellence in Hemorrhagic Stroke at UCSF.
Laura Greiss Hess, PhD, OTR/L, Associate Professor, Dominican University of California, Department of Occupational Therapy – is an occupational therapist (OT) whose education, clinical and research experience spans over 30 years. Laura completed her BS in special education and human development at Vanderbilt University and began her career as a special education teacher serving students with moderate/severe disabilities in 1992. She earned her MS in occupational therapy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her PhD from the University of California, Davis in Education (Learning and Mind Sciences). Professionally, she specialized in school-based OT for 17 years and completed comprehensive certifications in sensory integration and in assistive technology. Laura also worked at the UC Davis MIND Institute for 12 years collaborating on research and clinical teams specializing in the lived experiences of families raising children with disabilities and their meaningful occupational engagement in their homes, schools & communities, interprofessional collaboration, neurodevelopmental disorders, and assistive technology applications. She has been a full-time faculty member at Dominican University since 2015 in the OT department teaching courses in pediatrics, assistive technology and mentoring graduate capstone students. Laura’s clinical practice and scholarship has contributed to national and international conference presentations as well as journal / chapter publications. Laura joined the Bugher Centers of Excellence in Hemorrhagic Stroke at UCSF as a consultant in 2021.
SUPPORT TEAM
Angela Walker
