Dr. Lauren Tabor Gray earned her PhD in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Florida in 2018.
Dr. Lauren Tabor Gray is an Assistant Professor at the Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine and Director of the Cathy J. Husman ALS Center at Nova Southeastern University. She earned her PhD in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Florida in 2018. While at UF, Lauren was mentored by Dr. Emily Plowman. Lauren’s work focuses on developing novel clinical interventions to improve airway defense and clearance, and quality of life in patients living with ALS/MND.
Describe something about your work that excites you.
We are fortunate to be able to help people through our research every day. Some days it’s as simple as providing solutions for improved/easier oral care through our collaborative dental care grant, and other days we are improving respiratory capacity using a combined lung volume recruitment and expiratory training exercise program (DOD grant).
Describe a moment in your career when you felt particularly proud of your work and its impact.
Our work has won conference awards and been funded by the DOD and ALS Association, but nothing beats making a meaningful change in a participant’s life. This recently happened with a participant in our oral health and hygiene study, in which we were simply characterizing oral health in patients with ALS, taking saliva samples, performing cursory oral screening, and recommending helpful tools and tricks to improve oral health in our pALS with significant mobility issues and trismus. We had a participant with limb paralysis who was underinsured and hadn’t gotten a dental cleaning in 72 months. Through our research collaboration, we connected him to the NSU College of Dental health and a dental team that can make accommodations to see him. He got an oral cleaning and a few helpful tools to make cleaning his mouth with limited hand and arm function possible again.
What is your favorite memory from your time as a Rehabilitation Science PhD student?
I have so many! One of my favorite memories was when Dr. Alicia Vose and I presented at the Respiratory Science Social. We were early PhD students at the time, and extra nervous because all of the incredible senior respiratory/swallowing scientists were in attendance. Afterward, we had a great discussion and Alicia and I will never forget Dr. Gordon Mitchell telling us “This is the type of integration that I love to see. Very well done.” It was really rewarding.
What do you consider your greatest achievement since earning your PhD?
I took a different route with not doing a traditional post-doc. Instead, I worked at a Neuroscience Institute as the research director of an ALS clinic for 2 years while building my own research line. It was a really valuable experience, and I learned a lot about obtaining different types of research grants (i.e., foundation, industry), research budgeting and finance, and managing a research team. All of which translated to building my current research lab at Nova Southeastern University.
How do you balance your professional responsibilities, personal life, and other interests?
Family is always first, especially while my kids are young (Ryder age 1 and Bodie age 3). We really enjoy going to the beach, and anything outdoors. Professionally, we focus on keeping things in my research lab fun because it can easily feel like a rat race. Our mission is to perform good quality science, and contribute directly to improving patient care. When we keep that in mind, the outcomes have been great.