Board Member Profile: Hillary Plummer
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
Hillary is currently a postdoctoral research fellow with Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Technology. She works with the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory in the War Fighter Performance Group. Her research interest is in helping Army Aviators optimize their human performance. She helps to translate data from wearable sensors to accurately and efficiently make decisions regarding healthy, safety, and performance of Army aviators.
We sat down with Hillary to hear a little more about her perspective on the Tactical Athlete. Here is what she had to say:
(TA-LB): The themes of the Tactical Athlete Leadership Board are Readiness, Resilience, and Recovery. From your perspective, why are these themes important, and what about them resonates with your experience in the human performance industry?
(Hillary): Readiness, resiliency, and recovery must all be optimized in order to maximize human performance. If an athlete is deficient in any of these areas, then their performance will suffer. While some demands of the tactical athlete are similar to those of elite athletes there are operational requirements that can hinder readiness and recovery. Our research aims to examine the physiological and cognitive demands specific to the Army Aviator to determine normal and not normal ranges for safe and effective flying.
(TA-LB): Looking to the future, what technological innovation do you think will have the most significant impact on tactical athletes?
(Hillary): In the future, the biggest technological innovation will be developing models and algorithms that rapidly process large data sets and generate reports for the human performance staff to use in aid decision making about tactical athletes’ readiness. Technology can be leveraged to tailor training and manage workload for each individual to maximize their performance and reduce injury risk.
(TA-LB): The spirit of the TALB is to bring a diverse set of perspectives to the table aligned toward a singular purpose: to sustain the tactical athlete of today and prepare for the tactical athlete of tomorrow. Why is it essential for the broader human performance industry to work together towards this end?
(Hillary): Sustaining the tactical athletes of today and preparing them for tomorrow requires a holistic approach and therefore a multidisciplinary team of professionals. Strength and conditioning coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, nutritionists, and cognitive enhancement specialists will work with Army Soldiers on a regular basis. It is also important that research scientists and industry partners are brought to the table to help solve problems and develop evidence-based recommendations that will improve human performance.
(TA-LB): What is the greatest challenge to innovation in the human performance sector?
(Hillary): The greatest challenge is developing high fidelity wearable technologies that can withstand both the unique physical demands and environments in which tactical athletes work. Just like the adoption of high fidelity technology has revolutionized sports performance, similar efforts are needed to enhance human performance for Army Soldiers and Aviators. Funding is needed to develop technologies that can be integrated into already existing equipment to enhance durability and tactical athlete compliance with the technology.