Program Director
Kelly Westlake, PhD, MSc, PT
Dear Prospective PhD and DPT/PhD Students,
Thank you for visiting our website. I hope you find here some sense of the excitement that characterizes our PhD program in Physical Rehabilitation Science.
Rehabilitation science is interdisciplinary by definition. The impairments and disabilities we study are complex, and understanding them requires drawing on neuroscience, biomechanics, aging research, robotics, machine learning, remote sensing, and telehealth, among others. Advances across these areas are reshaping what rehabilitation can accomplish. Our program is designed to train scientists who are grounded in those advances and who also carry the clinical perspective that translational research requires, from bench to bedside to community. That work serves our central aim, which is to generate the evidence needed to restore movement function and reduce disability. For those who want to build careers as clinician-scientists, we also offer a combined DPT/PhD, which integrates research training with entry-level clinical preparation.
Our students train with core faculty who are internationally recognized in their fields and closely connected to basic science and clinical departments across the School of Medicine. Our location in Baltimore opens further collaborations across the University of Maryland System, the National Institutes of Health, the VA Maryland Health Care System, and other regional research institutions. Within this environment, students pursue the questions that matter most to them: what mechanisms promote or impede functional recovery, and how those insights become interventions that reach patients.
I hope the site is useful to you. Once you have had a chance to look around, please contact us with any questions. You are also welcome to reach out directly to faculty whose research interests you, and to their current students.
With best regards,
Kelly Westlake, PhD, MSc, PT
KWestlake@som.umaryland.edu
Director, PhD Program in Physical Rehabilitation Science
Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science