Biography

Christine Clarkin, PT, DPT, PhD received her B.S. degree in Physical Therapy from the University of Vermont in 1987 and her DPT from Simmons University in Boston in 2010. She received her PhD in the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at the University of Rhode Island in 2020. She has worked as a physical therapist, senior therapist, clinical education coordinator, and clinic director in a variety of settings including acute care, acute rehab, and home health care settings. Her experience has been across all diagnoses with a focus on neurologic impairments, amputee, and burn and wound care.

“My professional mission as a physical therapist, neuroscientist, professor, and researcher is to improve the life of people living with neurologic injury and neurodegenerative disease. It is this mission that motivated me as a clinician to return to school to receive my PhD in neuroscience in 2020 and pursue a career in research and teaching at URI. Applied principles of neuroplasticity are very much the cornerstone of physical therapy behavioral interventions and I am specifically interested in experience dependent neuroplasticity and how this presents as a neurobiological or structural change with associated behavioral implications. This broad mission guides my research agenda, teaching topics and methods, and professional service/community outreach.” – Dr. Christine Clarkin