The current project is a multidisciplinary collaboration across four universities in California
This work is supported by grants from the National Institute of Health (NIDCD R01DC022663, R56DC020700; PI: Ivanova).
Principal Investigator
Dr. Maria V. Ivanova, PhD is an Associate Researcher at the University of California Berkeley. Her previous research has focused on identifying structural and functional brain lesions that cause language and cognitive deficits in aphasia and uncovering neural changes that promote recovery post-stroke. Dr. Ivanova, as the Principal Investigator on this project, is excited to bring together an amazing multi-disciplinary team to create and implement a new exercise intervention for stroke survivors, realizing her vision of exercise being an integral part of holistic stroke recovery. She is optimistic that the innovative HI-FIIV exercise program can significantly improve the physical, cognitive, and mental health of individuals with aphasia.
In the APEX project, Dr. Ivanova aims to demonstrate the comprehensive benefits of vigorous exercise on language, cognitive, and emotional outcomes in aphasia. Additionally, she hopes that this work can uncover the neural mechanisms behind exercise-induced behavioral changes, offering fresh insights into the powerful interplay between physical activity and brain health. Ultimately, she envisions this work significantly altering our thinking about adjuvant aphasia therapies that can benefit those affected by stroke and aphasia through non-traditional means, in this case, a promising, safe, and cost-efficient intervention that can enhance cognitive and language outcomes, while also improving emotional well-being and overall health.
Co-Investigators
Dr. Christian Thompson, PhD is a Professor of Kinesiology at the University of San Francisco and an Affiliate Researcher with UCSF Medical Center. Dr. Thompson’s research in exercise programming for older adults has included many modalities and populations including high intensity interval training (HIIT) for stroke survivors, movement based video games for cognitive improvement, balance training for community-dwelling older adults and sport-specific training for older athletes. Dr. Thompson is the co-creator of the HI-FIIV exercise program and is the primary exercise leader of training sessions in the APEX project. He believes that this innovative and engaging exercise program may both improve outcomes associated with post-stroke aphasia and have a beneficial effect on overall quality of life for those who participate.
Dr. Erica Pitsch, DPT, is a Clinical Professor and Neurology Division Lead at the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at UCSF. She is a certified physical therapist who specializes in caring for patients with neurologic conditions. Dr. Pitsch has over 20 years of clinical and research experience in working with different clinical populations including stroke. She believes that exercise and movement are often the best medicine, and have the potential of making a lasting impact on the patient’s quality of life and functional abilities; they just require more time than taking a pill. She envisions the current project as a pathway to providing more evidence-based exercise interventions to patients with various neurologic conditions. Dr. Pitsch is the co-creator of the HI-FIIV exercise program. She will be contributing to the APEX project by continuously monitoring safety of participants throughout the intervention and additionally accommodating those with specific motor deficits.
Dr. Cathra Halabi, MD is an Associate Professor of Neurology at UCSF. She is a vascular neurologist who cares for patients hospitalized with neurovascular emergencies such as ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. She is also the founding director of the UCSF Neurorecovery Clinic and co-founding director of the related Post-Acute Traumatic Brain Injury Program; these clinics care for patients recovering from acquired neurologic injuries such as stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). In addition to exercise interventions, her research interests include more fully characterizing the consequences of stroke and TBI to identify prognostic factors and treatment targets. She routinely prescribes exercise as a treatment for her patients as part of a multidisciplinary team and is excited to one day bring evidence-based HI-FIIV exercise program directly to the clinical space for patients with aphasia and other post-injury sequelae.
Dr. Michelle Gravier, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at California State University East Bay and a licensed medical speech-language pathologist with over 15 years of experience working clinically with adults with aphasia. As the director of the Neurocognitive Research on the Rehabilitation of Language (NRRL) Laboratory and the Research Director of the CSU East Bay Aphasia Treatment Program, her research primarily focuses on the development and refinement of interdisciplinary adjunctive approaches to maximizing language treatment outcomes in aphasia and improving quality of life for those living with aphasia. Dr. Gravier will be contributing to the APEX team by overseeing the collection and analysis of speech-language outcome data.
Research Assistants
Ella Chen is a current undergraduate majoring in Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, who started with the APEX project in the summer of 2026. She is a San Fransico native with interests in clinical neuroscience and community health education. Her passions about mental health, women’s health, and outdoor fitness have landed her as a current member of the APEX team.
Meera Devine is a Clinical Research Coordinator for the APEX project after recently graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s in Neuroscience and Molecular & Cellular Biology. She assists with data collection and analysis, as well as working with neurological data. In her free time, she plays golf, loves to hike, and likes traveling to new places.
Former Student Researchers
Vanessa Anderson, BA worked on the APEX project from 2022 to 2023 as an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley under the mentorship of Dr. Ivanova. She helped pilot an early version of the exercise program in healthy younger and older adults as a part of her honors thesis. She later contributed to the analysis of cognitive data from the first pilot study with stroke survivors. She is currently pursuing her medical degree at Columbia University.
Devan Melwani was an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley who worked on the APEX project from 2023 to 2024. He created promotional video materials for the project and managed data collection and analysis of psychological outcome measures.
William Anderson volunteered at the UC Berkeley Aphasia Recovery Lab from 2024 to 2025,
beginning as a rising high school senior. He helped launch the APEX website and conducted literature reviews to support the project. He is currently working toward his bachelor’s degree in bioengineering at UC Berkeley.
Ferdaus Ghafury, BS was an international student-athlete from Germany studying Kinesiology at the University of San Francisco. From 2024 to 2026, he supported physical fitness assessments and the implementation of the exercise program under the mentorship of Dr. Christian Thompson. He is now planning on attending medical school in Europe.