Kim Dunleavy, PhD, PT, OCS

Dr. Dunleavy is a Clinical Professor and the Director of Community Engagement and Professional Education in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Florida. She has extensive academic experience in Physical Therapy education at the University of Central Arkansas, Wayne State University and the University of Florida.

Dr Dunleavy’s training includes an entry level professional Physiotherapy Bachelors degree from the University of Cape Town, a Masters in Physical Therapy from the University of Central Arkansas, a Masters in Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapy and residency training from the Ola Grimsby Institute, and a PhD in Instructional Technology from Wayne State University. She has been Board Certified by the American Physical Therapy Association as an Orthopaedic Specialist since 1993.

Along with educational scholarship in global and interprofessional education, Dr Dunleavy’s scholarship and has focused on management of musculoskeletal diagnoses, specifically spinal pain. Dr Dunleavy was the PI of a NIOSH pilot study funded by the Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety to identify modifiable work and movement solutions for seafood workers with chronic low back pain, and is currently the PI of a team investigating the effectiveness and implementation of self-management strategies for low back pain in nursery and landscape workers.

She was elected as a Distinguished Scholar and Fellow of the National Academies of Practice Physical Therapy Academy in 2017, serving on a taskforce to address the challenge of the organization’s response to the opioid crisis in 2019, and currently serves as the Chair of the Physical Therapy Academy (2023-2025). She serves as the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy representative to the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professions Education. She served on the planning committee for a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine joint workshop on the Non-Pharmacological Management of Pain in December 2018, and co-editor of a special edition of the Journal of Interprofessional Education and Practice on exemplars and models for interprofessional pain education. She has contributed to the interprofessional and evaluation components of the INSPIRE grant from the Department of Education Training for interdisciplinary personnel preparation for early childhood interventions at the University of Florida. Dr Dunleavy is a member of the Healthcare Sciences Interprofessional Committee at the University of Florida and contributed to interprofessional educational initiatives to address the opioid crisis.

Dr Dunleavy has merged her scholarship and service goals in the pursuit of enhancing professional development and instructional design for global physical therapy delivery. She has been actively involved in global clinical and academic educational projects in multiple global locations including Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Suriname, South Africa, Rwanda and Haiti, providing consultation for needs assessment, instructional material design and program evaluation. She was one of two technical advisors who developed the proposal and provided consultation and evaluation for USAID funded grant to develop Physical Therapy continuing education in Rwanda, and contributed to the design and delivery of continuing education courses to upgrade Physical Therapy training in Vietnam. She has also conducted a USAID grant evaluation in Cambodia, served on grant review and consultation committees for future USAID grant directions. She served for 12 years on the Board of Directors of HVO, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving health through education in developing countries for 12 years. Her dissertation documented and evaluated the effectiveness of a culture-neutral instructional design model used by the World Health Organization to design materials for blood safety training across multiple countries.

She has published a textbook on Therapeutic Exercise Prescription, with multiple international and national presentations and peer-reviewed publications related to management of musculoskeletal diagnoses. She currently teaches musculoskeletal and health promotion courses and coordinates the interprofessional and community engagement activities for the University of Florida Department of Physical Therapy.

• Board Certified Orthopaedic Specialist

  American Physical Therapy Association

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