Tell us a little about your experience in the RSD program.
I entered the RSD program in Fall 1999 after completing a Masters in health Science. We took the majority of classes in the evening. My dissertation was focused on motor control and the biomechanics of walking especially in people with Parkinson’s disease.
What types of jobs or activities have you engage in since graduation? And how does the training in the RSD program contribute to those activities?
After I graduated from the RSD program in 2002 I was hired by the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Florida as an instructor. In 2005 I applied for and was hired into an assistant professor position and I was promoted to associate professor and granted tenure in 2012. Currently, I teach in the doctor of physical therapy program and I am the interim director of post-professional residency programs at the University of Florida. If I think about mentoring that I received in the RSD program, it really was more about how to ask questions and test them rather than the specifics of any particular question. What I mean is that the way in which I was encouraged to formulate my ideas has translated across a variety of research projects and essentially every task that I have been assigned as a faculty member. As a result I have had some recognition in research and teaching. The RSD program also taught me to value collaboration across disciplines and professions. Currently my research area focuses on predicting the development and management of acute pain and is funded by the National Institutes of Health.