Karen L. McCulloch

Karen L. McCulloch is a professor in physical therapy in the Division of Physical Therapy, Department of Health Sciences, School of Medicine at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she has taught entry-level and advanced-level students in neurorehabilitation since 1993. She has served in multiple roles within the Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy, including the inaugural Director of Education, and has been honored with the Service to the Section Award and the APTA Lucy Blair Service Award.

Karen has cared about individuals with traumatic brain injury since beginning as a PT in clinical practice, extending from moderate to severe brain injury to a recent focus on military and sports concussion. Her research has focused on developing outcome measures and interventions to improve active movement, balance, and functional mobility, with the aim to improve quality of life. She developed the Arm Motor Ability Test (for upper limb recovery following stroke) and the Walking and Remembering Test (for dual-task performance in older adults and individuals with acquired brain injury).

Her current research efforts are focused on military mild traumatic brain injury, developing performance-based testing that incorporates dual- and multitask activities, stemming from the Assessment of Military Multitasking Performance project but now being validated in more clinically applicable forms. She is also a collaborator on studies that examine acute exercise testing post concussion and exercise intervention, and she promotes practice-based evidence analysis of multidisciplinary rehabilitation in military mild TBI. She was the colead of the APTA sponsored group that developed the clinical practice guideline for physical therapy management of concussion, and she is involved in intervention studies that address treatment for sports and military concussions. She is active in the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine mTBI Task Force. Funding support for her research has come from the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, National Football League, and Department of Defense. As an active member of the Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy, she has received awards for service and is a Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association.