Carolee Winstein,
PhD, PT, FAPTA, FAHA, FASNR

 

     

Getting to know Dr. Winstein...

Dr. Carolee Winstein is a Professor of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy and has an adjunct appointment in the Department of Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.

Dr. Winstein runs an interdisciplinary research program focused on understanding control, rehabilitation and recovery of goal-directed movements that emerge from a dynamic brain-behavior system in brain-damaged conditions. With NIH funding, she and her team are leading a multi-site phase III randomized controlled trial—ICARE (Interdisciplinary Comprehensive Arm Recovery Evaluation) stroke initiative--to improve outpatient therapy for arm paresis after stroke. With funding from the Foundation for Physical Therapy, she led the first Physical Therapy Clinical Research Network, PTClinResNet that supported clinical research on the effectiveness of task-specific/muscle-specific training to enhance muscle performance and functional activities across four disability groups including adult spinal cord injury, children with cerebral palsy, adult stroke, and low back pain.

With funding from NICHD and in collaboration with colleagues at USC, Winstein launched a new development-of-concept trial, Optimizing the Dosage of Rehabilitation after Stroke (DOSE) to ultimately determine prospectively the dose of therapy that maximizes the efficacy of treatment—to determine the smallest effective dose for individual patients.

 

Q: What is your favorite book?
A: Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak and Timeline by Michael Crichton.

Q: What do you do to keep fit?
A: Alternate days of hiking and core exercises 4-6 x per week.

Q: What is your favorite thing about your career?
A: My colleagues, students, and postdoctoral fellows.

Q: If you could have dinner with anyone, living or not, who would that be?
A: Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.

Q: Three adjectives that best describe you?
A: Positive, Thoughtful, Diplomatic.

Q: One bucket list item you absolutely must do?
A: Qualify for a private pilot's license for single-engine visual flight rating.

Q: What is a quote/phrase/motto you live by?
A: Rules are made to be broken.

Q: Who had the greatest influence on you during your childhood?
A: My parents

Q: Who is your favorite musical artist?
A: Joan Baez

Q: If you could be or do anything else for a career – what would it be?
A: Aviator

Q: If you could live in any other time, what would that be?
A: The future

Q: If they made a movie of your life story what would it be called?
A: A Wild Adventure

Q: What is your favorite food?
A: Sushi 

Q: What is your least favorite food?
A: Large curd cottage cheese

Q: Best advice anyone has given you?
A: Good things take time and rules are made to be broken

Q: What is the first thing you do when you wake up/start your day?
A: Smile

Q: What is one important skill every person should have?
A: Patience

Q: Share a personal fact no one would ever guess about you.  
A: I am taking flying lessons and soloed in N54678 on September 22 at El Monte Airport

Q: What's your favorite holiday?
A: Labor day

Q: What's the most unusual thing you've ever eaten? 
A: Snake soup

Q: Current professional interests?
A: Neurorehabilitation, Brain-Behavior dynamics associated with recovery, skill acquisition and motor learning; clinical trials research

Q: What factors influenced your career choice? 
A: A superb teacher and mentor I had as an undergraduate at UCLA.  Judith Smith

 

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