2. Profile
  3. Miriam Rafferty

Miriam Rafferty DPT PhD

Miriam Rafferty
Designation
  • Assistant Professor, Northwestern University
  • T32 in the Neuroscience of Mental Health Graduate
Website Profile Type
  • Alumni

In 2015, Miriam Rafferty completed my PhD in Neuroscience on at the University of Illinois Chicago, with a dissertation measuring changes in corticomotor plasticity in response to exercise and worked collaboratively on a long-term randomized clinical trial studying non-pharmacological management of nonmotor and motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease through exercise. Miriam's first author publication from that collaboration was awarded the Golden Synapse Award for Most Outstanding Publication in the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy from 2017.

  • Share your experience with the T32 Fellowship Program

    Following completion of my PhD in 2015, I completed training in health services and outcomes research at Northwestern University with a focus on Implementation Science training. I was awarded an F32 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (F32HS025077) to study barriers and facilitators to long-term rehabilitation management of Parkinson’s disease. This research focused on getting the perspectives of people
    with Parkinson’s disease and their interdisciplinary healthcare team. I was awarded several other grants to study related topics in long-term exercise maintenance and implementation of proactive physical therapy delivery models from the Foundation for Physical Therapy, the Parkinson’s Foundation, and the Davis Phinney Foundation. In September 2019, I took a full time Research Scientist II position at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), with an appointment as an Assistant Professor in Northwestern University’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. I continue collaborating with researchers and clinicians in mental health fields through my secondary appointment at Northwestern University’s Department 
    of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science through their implementation science methodology group. I am currently funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research with a project on studying the sequelae and implementation of an intervention to address psychiatric problems in people with early Parkinson’s disease. The training I received from the program developed by this T32 has allowed me to
    broaden my research horizons.