Carly Smith

Biography

Carly R. Smith is a post-doctoral associate under the mentorship of Jimmy A. Oñate within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Smith’s research focuses on increasing understanding of risk and protective factors for concussion and repetitive head impact exposure, and neuromuscular and sensorimotor performance in tactical and athletic populations. Her work has primarily focused on law enforcement personnel and athletes, with an emphasis on characterizing head acceleration events, identifying modifiable risk and protective factors, and translating research findings into strategies to improve health, performance and injury resilience in first responders and other physically demanding populations.

During her academic career, Smith has worked with a variety of populations, including law enforcement officers and cadets, youth athletes and her research experience includes leading data collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination for studies involving instrumented mouthguards, low-level blast exposure monitoring, physical and visual performance assessments, and concussion and traumatic brain injury outcomes. She has also contributed to research examining neuromuscular performance, virtual reality-based assessment and musculoskeletal and neurologic rehabilitation. Smith’s clinical training as a physical therapist, combined with her research experience in tactical and athletic populations, informs her goal of developing evidence-based approaches to improve physical and brain health, optimize performance and reduce injury risk in populations exposed to physically demanding environments.