Evelyn O’Neill is currently the project director for the STARS Study at Hebrew SeniorLife's Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research. With a Bachelor of Science in Recreation Education and 40 years of research experience working on exercise studies with frail elders, she has been working at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the past 35 years. She has been the lead interventionist on all of the landmark exercise trials carried out by Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh, including the FICSIT, ROYBAL, and HEAL studies. Most recently, Evelyn worked with Sarah Berry, M.D., and Douglas Kiel, M.D., at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center on the NIH-funded multi-center exercise trial STEP-HI. She was part of the team that developed the Fit for Your Life exercise program.
As a member of the Fit for Your Life Foundation board of directors, she has traveled throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, and Germany to conduct seminars on the implementation of this program. She has served as the trainer for the exercise leaders in Ettinger’s FAST trial of exercise and osteoarthritis, and Tinetti’s trial of home-based exercise training after hip fracture, as well as many other exercise trials conducted by investigators at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center and Harvard Medical School, many of which involved resistance/balance training. She has supervised many exercise physiology students and other health care professionals during their internship placements. She has co-authored many published articles in this field and is considered an expert in strength training/exercise for older adults.
