Mary Gannotti

Education

Post Doc Yale University School of Medicine, Epidemiology & Public Health

PhD University of Connecticut, Medical Anthropology

MA University of Connecticut, Applied Anthropology & Public Health

BS University of Connecticut, Physical Therapy

Specialties/Certification

• Childhood onset conditions, clinical outcome assessment, pediatric orthopedics, motion analysis, cerebral palsy and aging, quality of life, health services research, qualitative research, implementation science, and learning health networks

Teaching Focus

My teaching focus is on neurologic rehabilitation, motor control, physical activity for health and wellbeing for neurologic disability, aging with a disability, and research methods- qualitative approaches, health services research, clinical outcomes. My teaching philosophy is based on engagement and the construction of knowledge through experience. My teaching approaches include group problem solving, experimentation, the Socratic method, lecture-based learning and case studies.

Professional Interests Focus

I am a medical anthropologist and physical therapist who studies the inter-relationships among contextual factors, disability, health, function, and quality of life. My work includes validation of a Spanish translation of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory, ethnography of childhood disability in Puerto Rico, outcomes of adults with cerebral palsy, modeling influences on treatment effectiveness, use of secondary data sets, and exploration of common measures for outcome assessment nationally and globally.

Professional interests include advocacy for access to rehabilitation services by underserved populations, aging with cerebral palsy, quality improvement, and physical activity and quality of life for those with lifelong disability. I am a founding member of the Cerebral Palsy Research Network, which is a learning health network for individuals with cerebral palsy that focuses on high quality multicenter research, quality improvement, advocacy, and community outreach. Current professional work is focused on improving access to community-based evidence-based exercise programs for individuals with cerebral palsy and others with lifelong neurologic disability.