Heather Cianci

Heather Cianci, PT, MS, GCS, is the outpatient neurological team leader and founding therapist of the Dan Aaron Parkinson’s Rehabilitation Center (Penn Therapy & Fitness) at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, PA—part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Heather received her bachelor’s in physical therapy from the University of Scranton in Scranton, PA, and her master’s in gerontology from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She has been a physical therapist since 1994, and has dedicated her career to individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and atypical parkinsonisms. Heather is an LSVT® BIG-certified clinician, a PWR!-certified clinician, a graduate of the Rock Steady Boxing program for PD, and certified in Music & Memory®. She serves as an LSVT® BIG faculty instructor for LSVT Global, Inc., and co-coordinator and PT faculty for the Parkinson’s Foundation’s (PF) Allied Team Training Program (ATTP). Heather has authored book chapters on rehabilitative strategies for PD and frontotemporal degeneration and is the author of the PF educational manual Fitness Counts. Heather has lectured for various state physical therapy associations, the former Parkinson's Disease Foundation, the PF, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, national continuing education companies, and Philadelphia-area conferences and support groups. Her research includes movement strategies for bed mobility, falls, freezing of gait, and functional movement disorders. She teaches about rehabilitation and PD at Thomas Jefferson University’s (Philadelphia, PA) and Neumann University’s (Aston, PA) departments of PT. Heather is a former board member of CurePSP® and team member of the COPE program (Comprehensive Outpatient Atypical Parkinsonism Evaluation) at Pennsylvania Hospital’s Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Center.