URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Fall_2024_Mel

“It is such a success to say that we’re educating

EMPOWERING PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON’S DISEASE

for her passion for interdisciplinary work and collaboration with patients, community, and colleagues, is working on research supporting her three guiding pillars. EDUCATE CLINICIANS One of the experiential learning opportunities available to students in URI’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program is to volunteer at the Parkinson’s Exercise Group – a student led community exercise program for people with Parkinson’s. In 2019, Clarkin received a Parkinson’s Foundation Physical Therapy Faculty Award for $10,000 to study how this interactive experience improved the confidence and competency of students who participated. She’s currently concluding the findings, but to date, the results—both qualitative and quantitative— the workforce in and around the needs of people living with Parkinson’s.” - Christine Clarkin

CHRISTINE CLARKIN Assistant Professor Physical Therapy

written by ALLISON FARRELLY ’16

“I JUST WANT TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF THOSE LIVING WITH NEUROLOGIC DISORDERS.”

- Christine Clarkin

(ALS) and Parkinson’s disease. These experiences have guided her purpose as a researcher—to educate clinicians, to improve interventions, and to engage the community. “I just want to improve the lives of those living with neurologic disorders,” she says. “I can do that by educating new clinicians and existing clinicians to have more knowledge in and around neuroscience so they can be better clinicians and provide a more effective treatment. I can study actual interventions and work directly with the neurologic community, with the final component being community. I can make my research accessible to the people that need to know about it most.”

While working as a physical therapist for more than 30 years, two particular parts of the job caught Christine Clarkin’s interest: the questions her patients asked about their diagnoses and the fulfillment she felt educating doctor of physical therapy students during their clinical rotations. These two interests developed over the course of her career and led the Rhode Island native on a serendipitous path to her current position as an assistant professor of physical therapy and core faculty as a Ryan research assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Rhode Island (URI). As a clinician, Clarkin worked with patients with a variety of neuro-diagnoses—from spinal cord injuries and stroke patients to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

have indicated an enormous positive impact on student learning. “The feedback that I’ve gotten from students that have gone through the program and are now out in the workforce has been that they have been sought

Clarkin’s Neuro Collaborative Lab, aptly named

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