Evelyn O’Neill is the Project Director / Program Manager STEP-HI Study at HSL's Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research. With a BS in Education and 30 years of long-term care experience working with frail elders, she has been working at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the last 25 years. She has been the lead interventionist on all of the landmark exercise trials carried out by Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh and colleges at HRC, including the NIH-funded multi-center exercise trials FICSIT, ROYBAL, and HEAL. She was part of the team that developed the Fit For Your Life exercise program. As a Member of the Board of Directors of the Fit for Your Life Foundation, she has traveled throughout the USA, 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 HRC/Harvard, 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 the elderly.
