Legacy Leadership Council

The Legacy Leadership Council (LLC) is a strategic advisory group composed of former Orthotics and Prosthetics Foundation board chairs, executive committee members, and other key contributors and donors.

Its purpose is to provide continuity, support, and historical insights to the current board and executive leadership, contributing to the long-term success, execution of the mission, and vision alignment of the organization.

Members

Brian Hafner is a bioengineer and professor in the University of Washington (UW) Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, adjunct professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and a principal investigator at the University of Washington Center on Outcomes Research in Rehabilitation (UWCORR). His research focuses on the development, evaluation, and application of state-of-the-art outcome measures for measuring constructs such as mobility and fall-related health in people with limb loss/difference and other disabling neuromuscular and musculoskeletal conditions.

Dr. Hafner’s primary research interests include development of tools to improve measurement of health outcomes in lower limb prosthesis users and evaluation of advanced prosthetic technologies intended to improve performance, function, and quality-of-life in people with lower limb amputation. He has served as principal investigator on projects funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), Orthotics & Prosthetics Education and Research Foundation (OPERF), and American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists (AAOP). Dr. Hafner’s current research is aimed at enhancing the impact of health status instruments through rigorous development, psychometric evaluation, translation, and integration into electronic health record systems.

Vice President of Facilities & Process Design at Scottish Rite for Children (SRC), Dallas, Texas. He earned his BS from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Prosthetic and Orthotic program after attending The University of Texas at Austin. He attended the University of Texas at Arlington where he earned his MS in Health Care Administration. Don earned his Six Sigma Green Belt in Healthcare from Villanova University and is very committed to process improvement, leading SRC’s first ever initiative to design and construct a new campus in Frisco, Texas.

He is a past president of both the national and the Texas Chapter of the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists. He is a past Fellow with the Academy, an Associate Fellow with the Scoliosis Research Society, and was the recipient of the Academy’s Award for Research in 1997, the Tamarack Prize in 2011 from the Orthotic and Prosthetic Education and Research Foundation (OPERF) and is a multiple winner of the Honorary Thrandhardt Lecture Award. He was the 2012 recipient of the Academy’s Distinguished Practitioner award and in 2015 received the Academy’s Titus Ferguson Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a past Chairperson of OPERF and is one of the founding Board members of The Orthotics and Prosthetics Foundation for Education and Research.

He authored the book chapter, “Orthoses for Spinal Deformities,” in the Atlas of Orthoses and Assistive Devices published by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and has published original research in the journal of Spine, the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics, the journal of Gait and Posture, and the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.