Class of 2025: Michelle Walaszek

Originally from Downers Grove, IL, about 30 miles west of downtown Chicago, Michelle Walaszek began her Ph.D. at Michigan State University. When her advisor, Chris Kuenze joined the kinesiology faculty at the UVA School of Education and Human Development, she transferred to continue working with him as she explored the social determinants of health.

Q. How did you make your way to the UVA School of Education and Human Development to complete your Ph.D.?  

Although most students do not anticipate transferring during their Ph.D., I had the opportunity to follow Dr. Chris Kuenze to UVA from Michigan State University. Although it was not an easy decision, there were several factors that went into my decision.

I was fortunate to speak with current and former students of the Department of Kinesiology about their experience as a Ph.D. student and the opportunities they had been afforded during their graduate work. I was very impressed with the opportunities for professional development, collaboration, and funding that are available for Ph.D. students in the Department of Kinesiology at UVA.

Chris is a great mentor, valuing my clinical background as a physical therapist, and his passion for open-source and collaborative work was important to me. He also emphasized work-life balance, which as a Ph.D. student is valuable. Although it was tough for me to leave Michigan State University, the mentorship from Chris and opportunities at UVA were too valuable to pass up.

Q. What is one of the most significant things that has shaped your time while you’ve been at UVA?

I was incredibly fortunate to be able to collaborate on research internally at UVA and externally during my Ph.D. Chris established the ACL Reconstruction Rehabilitation Outcomes Workgroup (ARROW), which is a collaborative clinical research group that propelled my dissertation projects.

We have several external collaborators across academic institutions and health systems, in addition to internal collaborators in the UVA School of Data Science, Natalie Kupperman and her students, who are driven to improve clinical research in the ACLR population. Chris and I value the opportunity to collaborate in research as it is the best way to improve evidence-based practice in the ACL reconstruction field.

As a physical therapist, I hope my research efforts will inform clinical practice to improve the quality of life for patients, but this would not be possible if clinicians and researchers remained siloed. I'm grateful to all the ARROW members for the opportunity to present our work in my dissertation and look forward to all the projects to come in the future.

Q.  What is one thing you learned during your studies that surprised you most?

Graduate school is not for the faint of heart. It will wear you down, but it will also build you up professionally and personally. You have to be willing to adapt and shift gears throughout your time as a graduate student. You never know what you will learn inside and outside the classroom, and even more so, you never know how this will shape your research agenda during your Ph.D. But you have to be open to these opportunities in order to grow as a student, researcher, and person.

Q. As you have been finishing your Ph.D., you have been working at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Chicago. Can you share what you’ve been doing there?

I am a research associate at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab working with a team that focuses on exercise in neurologic conditions—very different from my Ph.D. work in individuals after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR).

I currently work on a collaborative research project which focuses on two communities in the Chicagoland area. The Chicagoland area, the area in and around the city of Chicago, is diverse in the opportunities and resources available to adults with neurological conditions.

Social determinants of health allow us to understand the opportunities and resources that are available to an individual in their neighborhood or community, such as education, financial, employment, healthcare, and environmental opportunity and quality. Social determinants of health provide information about access to and utilization of health care, which influences the quality of life for patients with a variety of health conditions.

Q. What will you be doing next?

I will continue to work as a research associate at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and in the future hope to return to teaching in a Doctor of Physical Therapy program and have the opportunity to do independent and collaborative research.