Who We Are

Nigel Paneth, MD, MPH, is Principal Investigator of the CPON Study, and a faculty member in the Department of Epidemiology at Michigan State University. Dr. Paneth is a pediatrician and perinatal and child health epidemiologist with a particular interest in the causes and prevention of childhood neurodevelopmental handicap, especially cerebral palsy.

Rachel Fisher, MB, BS, PhD, Co-Investigator. Dr. Fisher is the director of the central Michigan regional Prenatal Screening Program, begun in 1980, which screens more than 10,000 pregnancies annually. She has chaired the Great Lakes Regional Genetics Group laboratory quality assurance committee. Her recent research has focused on prenatal screening techniques and on the genetics of congenital, nonsyndromal hearing impairment.

Mary Jo Cooley Hidecker, Ph.D., CCC-A/SLP is a speech-language pathologist and audiologist with clinical experience in managing complex communication disorders, including those that result from cerebral palsy. Her research interests include the relationship among effective treatment outcomes and individual and family factors. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Hidecker is an MS candidate in Epidemiology. Her postdoctoral research is the validation of a Communication Function Classification System to be used with individuals who have cerebral palsy. This research is funded by a NIH/NIDCD F32 NRSA and a United Cerebral Palsy Research and Education Foundation grant.

Rebecca Jones, PhD, CCC-SLP, is a faculty member in the Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences at Michigan State University.  Dr. Jones is a speech-language pathologist and a special educator with a particular interest in the speech and language development of children with cerebral palsy.  She also has expertise in the areas of augmentative and alternative communication, and assistive technology for computer access.

Linda Potter is an attorney and the Executive Director of UCP Michigan.  She has been a disability advocate for more than 25 years.  She was previously Director of Developmental Disabilities Programs at Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services and practiced disability law with the Maryland Disability Law Center, the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board in Washington D.C., and Evergreen Legal Services in Seattle, Washington.  She is a graduate of the University of Washington Law School.

Steve Korzeniewski is a is a doctoral student in Epidemiology investigating the effects of perinatal exposures on neurodevelopment.   He is the mainly focused on maintaining/updating the web-site, and contributing to scientific reviews of both web-sites and literature. 

Madeleine Lenski, MSPH in epidemiology, is CPON's Project Coordinator.  She has been project manager for several research studies in the Department of Epidemiology involving infants and children born at low birthweight and gestational age.   She is responsible for communicating with subscribers and health care providers, and working with the project team on outreach and planning