Steven Z. George PT, PhD, FAPTA completed his physical therapy training at West Virginia University and worked clinically at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center/Centers for Rehab Services. He completed his research training at the University of Pittsburgh and continued onto a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Florida. Currently, Dr. George is the Laszlo Ormandy Distinguished Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University. He is a member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute and has a secondary appointment in Population Health Sciences. Dr. George’s primary research interest involves using biopsychosocial models for the prediction and prevention of transition to chronic musculoskeletal pain disorders. He has presented extensively at international, national, and state conferences for physical therapy and pain research: including keynote and plenary sessions. Dr. George serves as Editor-in-Chief for PTJ, Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal - official journal of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).

Dr. George has had his research funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Orthopaedic Academy of the APTA, and Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and along with his collaborators has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications in leading physical therapy, medical, orthopaedic, rehabilitation, and pain research journals. He was a committee member for workshops on non-pharmacological pain management and disability from chronic pain hosted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and has served on the Advisory Council for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Dr. George has collaborated on clinical practice guideline development with the Orthopaedic Academy of the APTA and the American Psychological Association.

Dr. George is a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the APTA, a past John HP Maley Lecturer, and has also been recognized by the APTA with prestigious research awards: Eugene Michels for New Investigator, Jules Rothstein Golden Pen for Scientific Writing, Helen Hislop for Outstanding Contributions to Professional Literature, and Marian Williams for Research in Physical Therapy. Outside of the APTA he has been recognized with the 2009 John C. Liebeskind Early Career Scholar Award from the American Pain Society (now defunct) and the 2012 Ulf Lindblom Young Investigator Award for Clinical Sciences from the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Dr Giacomo Rossettini is an Italian physiotherapist, lecturer, and researcher specialising in musculoskeletal physiotherapy. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Physiotherapy in 2008, a Master’s degree in Rehabilitation of Musculoskeletal Disorders in 2010, a Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Sciences in 2014, and a PhD in Neuroscience in 2018.

He teaches in several undergraduate, postgraduate, and Master’s programmes in Manual Therapy and Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy in Italy. Dr Rossettini is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Universidad Europea de Madrid and an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at Health Sciences University.

He has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed publications and delivered over 60 presentations at national and international conferences. He is involved in internationally funded projects in musculoskeletal rehabilitation and pain science. His research mainly focuses on placebo and nocebo effects and contextual factors influencing clinical outcomes.

Dr Rossettini also serves as Associate Editor for Musculoskeletal Science and Practice and is a member of the National Executive Board of the Italian Physiotherapy Association (AIFI).

Kathryn Schneider is an Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist (Physiotherapist) at the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on the prevention, detection and treatment of sport-related concussion. Her work has identified a large treatment effect using multimodal physiotherapy and vestibular rehabilitation, significant changes in cervical spine function following concussion in youth ice hockey players (2018 JOSPT Excellence in Research Award) and identified symptoms of dizziness, neck pain and headaches as risk factors for concussion in youth. She has led international multicentre multinational trials that have informed concussion prevention, detection and rehabilitation – leading to changes in clinical practice. Her research focuses on understanding best practices for concussion, and for minimizing the impact of dizziness, neck pain and headaches across multiple populations. She has over 143 peer reviewed publications. She has a passion for pragmatic research that informs optimization of care across ages and levels of sport and health – ultimately optimizing the health and well being of all.

Kathryn is a Clinical Specialist in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physiotherapists and has expertise and certification in vestibular rehabilitation. She was recognized by Avenue Magazine as “Top 40 Under 40” in 2012, was the recipient of the Vestibular Disorders Association (VEDA) Champion of Vestibular Medicine Award in 2015, Canadian Physiotherapy Association Centenary Medal of Distinction (recognized as one of the top 100 physiotherapists in Canada in the past 100 years) and received the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM) Presidential Medallion for her contributions to the field of sport medicine in Canada.

She is recognized as an international leader in concussion – holding leadership roles with the Concussion in Sport Group and International Consensus meetings over the past 115 years. Specifically, she has been an invited Expert Panelist, author on the consensus statement and lead author for systematic reviews evaluating the effects of treatment for the 4th and 5th International Consensus Conferences on Concussion in Sport, also as a Scientific Committee member and lead for the methodology informing the 5th International Consensus Conferences on Concussion in Sport. A particular career highlight was serving as co-chair of the scientific committee, expert panel and co-lead author of the Amsterdam International Consensus Statement on Concussion in Sport, the outputs from the 6th International Consensus Conference on Concussion in Sport which is one of the most highly cited manuscripts in the field – providing recommendations for clinical practice and used to inform concussion guidelines globally. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/11/695

Invited speaking highlights include chairing the 6th International Consensus Conference on Concussion in Sport (Amsterdam), International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical meetings at the Sochi, Rio, PyeongChang and Paris Olympic games, IOC Advanced Team Physician and Sport Physiotherapy Courses and Keynote talks at multiple International and National sport and health meetings. She has worked with the Coaching Association of Canada to develop up to date educational content for coaches across sport in the Making Headway course. https://coach.ca/module/nccp-making-head-way-sport. She also led the development of a Massive Open Online Course on Concussion at the University of Calgary in collaboration with her colleague Dr. Pierre Fremont (Universite Laval) which has engaged over 18,000 participants to date! https://kinesiology.ucalgary.ca/current-students/online-concussion-course

Her clinical practice focuses on the treatment of recreational to elite/professional athletes with ongoing symptoms following sport-related concussion. Over the past 12+ years, she has worked with many local, provincial and national sport organizations and health care teams to develop and implement evidence-based concussion protocols and processes. She is a member of the Federal Government Working Group on Concussion in Sport and is the co-lead of the integrated Knowledge Translation and Patient and Stakeholder engagement committee of the Canadian Concussion Network.

Areas of research:

• Concussion
• Prehabilitation
• Rehabilitation
• Sensorimotor function
• Performance
• Female athlete health and considerations