Dr. Ryan Lavalley is an assistant professor in the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also the founder and primary lead of the Community Practice Lab. He has worked as a community occupational therapist since 2014, providing and developing programming most often related to aging, dementia, and housing across Orange County, NC. Ryan has and continues to work in partnership with multiple collaborators across Orange County and North Carolina to further community-rooted initiatives. Ryan is also the current coordinator for the Carolina Aging Network which is a coalition of campus partners who work in aging. Additionally, Ryan teaches the Community-Level Occupational Therapy course in the Masters of Occupational Therapy Program at UNC-CH through which he has guided student partnerships with multiple local organizations to develop programming and strategic actions steps to support community health and participation. Ryan co-hosts an occupational therapy podcast with Dr. Khalilah Johnson. Ryan is originally from West Virginia and earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH focusing on occupational therapy, social justice, and peace studies. 

Leiha Edmonds
Community Engagement Fellow

Leiha Edmonds is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Environment and Community Practice Lab Community Engagement Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a Master of Urban Planning and Policy from University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on geographies of urban aging with attention to caregiving, age-friendly policies, and housing stability. In the CPL, Leiha supports the coordination, research, and evaluation of the Orange County Home Preservation Coalition and the Orange County Master Aging Plan. Before coming to UNC, she was a research associate at Urban Institute, where she led multi-method and community-engaged research focused on social and economic inequality in U.S. cities. Leiha has also worked as a community development planner for the City of Evanston, Illinois, and as a low-wage worker organizer in Chicago and East St. Louis, Illinois.