From Mentor to Federal Investigation: The Dr. Eva Feldman Documentary Chronology

The story documented here begins in 1998, when Dr. Eva Feldman became a mentor to Dr. Bradley Foerster, then a fourth-year medical student at the University of Michigan.

That relationship would span approximately two decades.

After completing his training, Dr. Foerster joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University, where his wife, Dr. Myria Petrou, was also a faculty member. In 2009, Dr. Feldman helped recruit both physicians back to the University of Michigan.

Their return to Ann Arbor marked the beginning of an ambitious scientific collaboration. Drs. Feldman, Foerster, and Petrou worked together to build an ALS neuroimaging research program combining advanced imaging methods with the patients and clinical expertise of the University of Michigan ALS Clinic.

The relationship extended well beyond research.

Drs. Foerster and Petrou named their daughter Maria Eva after Dr. Feldman. The documentary record shows Dr. Feldman exchanging messages about their children, welcoming the family into her homes, supporting their careers, and remaining closely involved in their professional and family lives.

The professional relationship was equally close. In a 2013 letter to the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Feldman wrote that she had been “very pleased to help recruit Dr. Foerster back from Johns Hopkins University.” She described working closely with him to recruit and phenotype ALS patients and documented the publications and research funding that had already resulted from their collaboration. The following year, she described their relationship as a “wonderful working relationship” and called Dr. Foerster “outstanding.”

Building an ALS Imaging Program

The chronology follows that collaboration through the successful application for an approximately $3 million National Institutes of Health R01 grant to develop a multimodal neuroimaging biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

ALS is a rapidly progressive neurological disease. The research sought to develop advanced imaging methods that could help detect and characterize ALS earlier, with the hope that earlier diagnosis could create opportunities for potential treatments to be introduced earlier in the course of the disease.

The scientific goal was clear. Executing it proved much more difficult.

The chronology documents Dr. Foerster navigating an increasingly dysfunctional research environment involving disputes over responsibilities, regulatory requirements, personnel, clinical operations, and administration of the NIH grant.

Yet the research continued.

Despite those difficulties, Dr. Foerster and his team persevered in recruiting research participants, performing clinical and neuroimaging examinations, and analyzing the resulting imaging data.

By the University’s final NIH report, Dr. Foerster’s team had consented approximately 107 subjects and enrolled and imaged 72. The University also documented that his team continued analyzing MR spectroscopy data obtained from the imaged participants.

The Relationship Changes

Against that backdrop, the chronology documents a dramatic change in Dr. Feldman’s relationship with Drs. Foerster and Petrou.

For years, Dr. Feldman had been their mentor, collaborator, advocate, and close family friend. She had helped recruit them from Johns Hopkins, supported their research, participated directly in the ALS program, and shared a close relationship with their family.

By July 2018, that relationship had changed.

Dr. Feldman stated that she and Dr. Foerster “will no longer be working together.”

Days later, she asked Drs. Foerster and Petrou not to return to the ALS Clinic.

The chronology does not ask the reader to speculate about that transformation. It documents it in the context of the events occurring around it.

From Reporting Concerns to Investigation

The chronology also follows Dr. Foerster’s repeated reporting of concerns regarding whether his Co-PI was performing the work supported by the NIH grant.

Those concerns encountered repeated institutional resistance and denial.

The University of Michigan subsequently sought Dr. Foerster’s dismissal through unprecedented proceedings under Regents’ Bylaw 5.09. On August 6, 2018, the University initiated formal dismissal proceedings, immediately relieved Dr. Foerster of all University duties and responsibilities, and cited the NIH ALS R01 and the then-ongoing HHS-OIG investigation among the grounds for seeking his dismissal.

At the same time, another process was unfolding largely outside Drs. Foerster and Petrou’s knowledge.

Dr. Foerster and individuals associated with him became subjects and witnesses in a joint FBI and HHS-OIG investigation concerning the NIH ALS R01.

The extent of that investigation would remain largely unknown to Drs. Foerster and Petrou for years.

What the FBI Records Now Show

Recently released FBI records provide a window into what was occurring.

The records document joint FBI and HHS-OIG interviews, investigative coordination, and consideration of the matter by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

By February 2019, the assigned Assistant U.S. Attorney had advised that no criminal charges would be brought.

The same FBI record, however, documented that Dr. Foerster and at least one other individual were “in the process of being debarred” from future U.S. Government grants.

The proposed federal debarment process was not known to Dr. Foerster at the time.

Later FBI records document continued follow-up regarding the status of debarment and, ultimately, closure of the criminal investigation after the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined prosecution.

Years later, another piece of the record emerged. In July 2026, HHS-OIG reported that after conducting a “thorough search,” it could locate no records of any proposed, contemplated, initiated, or completed debarment, suspension, exclusion, or grant-eligibility action concerning Dr. Foerster.

The chronology places these records alongside the events they concern.

The Documentary Record

What began in 1998 as a medical-school mentorship ultimately became a two-decade story involving two academic physicians recruited back from Johns Hopkins in 2009, a close family relationship, the development of an ALS neuroimaging program, a multimillion-dollar NIH grant, the breakdown of a research collaboration, unprecedented University dismissal proceedings, and a federal investigation whose internal records would not become known to Drs. Foerster and Petrou until years later.

On August 12, 2026, the completed Documentary Notice and chronology, supported by 139 exhibits, were formally provided to Dr. Feldman. Copies were also provided to University leadership and the other individuals and institutions identified in the notice.

The purpose of this publication is not to relitigate those events, but to place the underlying documentary record in one location and preserve it.

Documentary Notice and Chronology

The approximately 60-page Documentary Notice and chronology may be viewed directly below or opened separately through Google Drive.

View Documentary Notice and Chronology in Google Drive

Complete Documentary Record — Exhibits 1–139

For readers who wish to examine the underlying source materials, the complete documentary record contains the Documentary Notice, chronology, and all 139 supporting exhibits—approximately 925 pages.

View Complete Documentary Record — Exhibits 1–139

Selected Reporting

Brad Foerster, MD PhD

Brad Foerster is a FOIA advocate documenting requests, transparency disputes, and accountability investigations involving public agencies, universities, police oversight, and Russia-Gate related inquiries. His work compiles original documents, timelines, and analysis of public records and institutional responses. Brad is also a board-certified radiologist, author of Town & Gown, and has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles. Brad lives in Potomac, Maryland with his family and is active in the Montgomery County Medical Society and the Takoma Park U.S. & World History Book Club.