Mentor Interview

Dr A. started as a physical therapist working with national handball and volleyball teams Her clinical work inspired her to pursue her masters in sport's physical therapy and a PhD in biomedical sciences KU Leuven (Belgium) and VU Amsterdam (Netherlands). Dr. A is now assistant professor at the University of West Florida and as an associate researcher at Lund University in Sweden. Dr. A is also a fellow of the OARSI Early-Stage Knee OA Classification Initiative, which aims to develop and validate new criteria for identifying OA earlier in the disease course.

Dr. A's research focuses on understanding knee osteoarthritis in its early, post-traumatic stages, often after injuries like ACL tears. She studies how structural changes clinical symptoms, and biomechanical performance relate to each other and to disease progression

Dr. A chose this field because, as a physical therapist, she often saw patients and athletes struggle long after their initial injury healed. That sparked her interest in why some develop chronic issues like OA while others recover fully. Dr. A aims to identify these early differences and develop better prevention and management strategies.
 

Being a physical therapist for national sports teams and helping athletes recover to peak performance.​

 Completing her joint doctoral degree in Europe, which required building and coordinating multi-center research collaborations.

 Being a fellow in the OARSI Early-Stage Knee OA initiative, contributing to international efforts to redefine how we identify OA before irreversible joint damage occurs.

 Mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students at UWF and watching those students grow into confident researchers.

One ongoing challenge for Dr. A is balancing teaching, mentoring, conducting research, writing grants, and maintaining collaborations across countries. Time management and prioritization are constant learning processes.

In clinical practice the physical demands of rehab work is tough and in research securing funds is tough, these require both persistence and resilience. 

Ensuring research and experimental findings match real world applications. This takes teamwork, communication and long-term vision.

Patience and empathy are important because as a physical therapist you must be consistent and understand people's motivations and barriers.

Critical thinking and problem solving is important as every patient's situation is unique and you need to analyze and adapt constantly. 

Collaboration and mentorship are important as progress in science and healthcare come from teamwork and shared learning. 

Adaptability is important because the field is rapidly evolving and being current and up to date with those changes as well as being open minded to such changes is crucial