Ann Gentile Memorial Conference

KAREN E. ADOLPH is Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Center for Neuroscience at New York University, and she leads the Databrary.org project to enable open sharing of research video. She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and her Ph.D. from Emory University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Adolph received a James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award, the APF Robert L. Fantz Memorial Award, the APA Boyd McCandless Award, the ISIS Young Investigator Award, FIRST and MERIT awards from NICHD, and five teaching awards from NYU. Adolph’s research on motor skill learning and development 

D. Michele Basso Ed.D., PT is a professor, Director of Research and Associate Director of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The Ohio State University. She received a B.S. in Physical Therapy from the University of Utah in 1984, an M.A. and Ed.D in Motor Learning from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1986 and 1991, respectively.  She completed two postdoctoral fellowships – one with Michael Goldberger, Ph.D., in recovery of function after SCI at Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1991-1992, and one with Jacqueline Bresnahan, Ph.D., and Michael Beattie, Ph.D., in mechanisms of recovery at The Ohio State University, 1992-1996.  Dr. Basso has two research initiatives for spinal cord injury (SCI) – projects that use cellular and molecular approaches in experimental models and those that translate into the clinic and human SCI. Translating basic science findings into novel clinical interventions is the driving mission for Dr. Basso and her lab.  The role of neuroinflammation in abrogating rehabilitation effects is a primary focus in our basic science and translational research.

Andy Gordon has a broad background in neurophysiology and biomechanics and have extensive clinical and research expertise involving children with cerebral palsy. He has been studying hand motor control in healthy individuals and individuals with CP for over 20 years. In 1996 he founded the Center for Cerebral Palsy Research at Teachers College, Columbia University. The Center places emphasis on understanding the mechanisms underlying motor disorders associated with CP, and developing evidence-based treatment approaches targeting these disorders using motor learning approaches. In the last decade more than 250 children with CP have participated in hand treatment day camps. He is a fellow in the National Academy of Kinesiology, and has more than 130 peer-reviewed papers.

James Gordon, PT, EdD, FAPTA, is professor as well as associate dean and chair of the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California. He received his BS in Physical Therapy from the State University of New York – Downstate Medical Center. He then worked for 6 years as a physical therapist in acute care, rehabilitation, and home care settings before entering graduate school with the goal of becoming a researcher in the science underlying neurologic rehabilitation. In 1985, he was awarded an EdD in Movement Science at Teachers College, Columbia University.

After graduation, Dr. Gordon worked as a researcher with a focus on the neural control of movement, especially the roles of proprioceptive information in control of reaching movements. He has held full-time faculty positions in the physical therapy departments at Columbia University, New York Medical College, and University of Southern California. As a researcher and educator, he is recognized for his lectures and writings on applying research in motor control and motor learning to neurological rehabilitation. He has also taught courses in professional practice and co-authored a text on documentation in physical therapy.

Long active in APTA, Dr. Gordon is a member of the Education Section, Neurology Section, and Section on Research. Among many other accomplishments, he co-directed PTClinResNet, a groundbreaking Foundation of Physical Therapy‒funded clinical research network. He has been an advocate for excellence in academic physical therapy, and most recently he played a leading role in the formation of the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy. Dr. Gordon became a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of APTA in 2005. He was chosen to deliver the Education Section’s Pauline Cerasoli Lecture in 2011 and the APTA’s Mary McMillan Lecture in 2014.

Rebecca Lewthwaite received her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is Director of Research and Education in Physical Therapy at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Los Angeles. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California. Dr. Lewthwaite’s research focuses on the role of motivational enhancements in motor performance and learning, in diverse individuals, from those undergoing physical rehabilitation to developing and high-performing athletes.

Richard Magill is interested in motor skill acquisition processes and how practice related variables influence skill acquisition, especially forms of instruction, augmented feedback, and practice schedules. He has written extensively about applications of motor learning concepts to sports, phsycial education, and rehabilitation by authoring or co-authoring more than 80 articles and chapters in research journals and edited books, and giving more than 80 invited presentations at national and international meetings. He is co-author, with his former doctoral student David Anderson, of the textbook, Motor Learning and Control: Concepts and Applications, published by McGraw-Hill, which is now in its 11^th  edition. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport

He received a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Florida State University. Prior to moving to New York City, he was a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Louisiana State University for 29 years, where he currently is an emeritus professor. Upon arriving in New York, following his retirement from LSU, he served as a Visiting Professor in the Steinhardt School at NYU for 3 years, after which he served a 3-year term as chair of NYU’s Dept. of Teaching and Learning. For the past 4 years he has been a an adjunct professor at both NYU and Teachers College, Columbia University.

Lori Quinn is Associate Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Quinn holds joint appointments as Adjunct Associate Professor of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine (Physical Therapy) at Columbia University Medical Center, as well as Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Physiotherapy at Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.  Dr. Quinn’s research has focused on developing evidence and guidelines for targeted physical interventions in neurodegenerative diseases, and in particular for people with Huntington's disease (HD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Prior to joining TC in 2015, Dr. Quinn was a Senior Research Fellow at Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.  The Cardiff group has validated outcome measures, consulted service users to develop appropriate interventions, and conducted case studies and several larger feasibility studies (MOVE TO EXERCISE, COMMET-HD, TRAIN-HD).  Dr. Quinn continues to collaborate with colleagues at Cardiff University, and two larger scale funded studies are currently underway:  ExeRT-HD and Engage-HD.  Prior to this, Dr. Quinn was Assistant and then Associate Professor of Physical Therapy at New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, and has worked in clinical settings with patients with various neurological disorders and diseases since 1989. 

In addition to her work in neurodegenerative diseases, Dr. Quinn is the co-author of the physical therapy textbook Documentation for Rehabilitation:  A guide to clinical decision making in physical therapy, currently in its 3rd edition.  Dr. Quinn serves as a reviewer for Physical Therapy Journal, Pediatric Physical Therapy and Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy, and is currently a member of two task forces on the Human Movement System, sponsored by the American Physical Therapy Association. Dr. Quinn’s clinical and research work spans areas of motor learning and control, goal setting, and functional outcomes measures.

Roberta Shepherd started writing textbooks in the 1960s with Physiotherapy in Paediatrics when she was teaching in paediatrics and found no textbook. Janet Carr and she started collaborative work around this time, aiming with textbooks and research to illustrate the process of bridging the gap between science and practice, what we now call ‘translational research’. They concentrated on writing new editions in order to illustrate how to use new developments in science and proposed changes in practice when the evidence demanded it. After graduating from Columbia University Teachers College in the 1980s they edited Movement Science Foundations for Physical Therapy in Rehabilitation a collaboration with Ann Gentile, Jim Gordon and Jean Held. Janet and she went on to write several more books and research papers. A major milestone for her was taking up the Foundation Chair of Physiotherapy in the University of Sydney, and lately she has been blessed with honoured membership of the Australian Physiotherapy Association, and several awards culminating in a Doctor of Health Science (honoris causa) from my university. She currently hold the position of Honorary Professor and is involved in research, teaching and mentoring. Her lifelong academic work with Professor Janet Carr illustrates the importance of collaborative work and the production of Movement Science is a marvelous commemoration of a collaboration to produce what became a major text and placed the movement sciences at the very heart of modern physiotherapy.

Gabriele Wulf is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Dr. Wulf studies factors that influence the learning of motor skills. Her research has resulted in nearly 200 journal articles and book chapters, as well as two books. Dr. Wulf has received various awards for her research, including UNLV’s Barrick Distinguished Scholar Award. She served as the founding editor of two journals, Frontiers in Movement Science and Sport Psychology (2010-2012) and the Journal of Motor Learning and Development (2012-2015).

Howard Zelaznik is a Professor of Health and Kinesiology as well as Associate Vice President for Research at Purdue University.  He holds Courtesy Appointments in Psychology and Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.  His research is centered on theoretical issues in motor control, most notably in movement timing.  He is a Fellow in AAAS and the National Academy of Kinesiology.  He had the distinct privilege of being taught undergraduate motor learning by A. M. Gentile in 1972 which resulted in 40 years of mentoring by Ann as well as several memorable stories.