Instructors

is a hand therapist with over 40 years of clinical experience in treating upper extremity conditions and over 30 years of teaching experience. He designed and developed Hand Therapy programs at four major teaching centers in Canada. He conducted many instructional courses on upper extremity rehabilitation in over 20 countries in the world and has won many awards for his presentations. He has over 250 presentations to his credit.

He was awarded the “Dr. Paul Brand Award of Excellence” by the American Society of Hand Therapists (ASHT), “Award of Leadership” by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT), “Award of Excellence” by the Sisters of St. Joseph’s Hospital, “Best Educator” by the  Western University and the “Lifetime Membership Award” by the Canadian Society of Hand Therapists. He authored five book chapters and has published 27 papers and 15 abstracts in numerous peer-reviewed journals related to Upper Extremity Surgery and Therapy.

Classes taught by Shrikant J. Chinchalkar :

• Upper Extremity Tendon Injury Update: Advances in Clinical Management
• Management of Upper Extremity Tendon Injuries and Fractures
• Simplifying Management of the Wrist and Elbow: An Analytical Approach to Upper Extremity Rehabilitation
• The Wrist and Carpals: An Analytical Approach to Rehabilitation of the Wrist
• Simplifying Biomechanics of the Elbow
• Management of Upper Extremity Stiff Joints
• Management of Common Hand Injuries
• The Hand: An Analytical Approach to Hand Rehabilitation

is a board certified Orthopaedic clinical specialist and Mckenzie certified specialist for mechanical diagnosis and treatment of the spine. He started his own practice eighteen months after graduating from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (now the University of Science in Philadelphia), which he sold to NovaCare in 1997.

He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at UMDNJ, guest lecturer at Stockton College in New Jersey, and Medical College of Virginia where he lectures on Advanced Orthopedics, Neural Mobilization, Radiology, and Evaluation and Treatment of TMJ Disorders. Mark is also a continuing education speaker on Evaluation and Treatment of Brachial Plexopathies, Neural Mobilization, the lumbar spine, and the shoulder. He was honored in 2006 with the James Tucker Excellence in Clinical Practice and Teaching Award by the APTAnj. He presented at the national conference in Hollywood of the American Society of Hand Therapists on Evaluation and Treatment of the Brachial Plexopathy Patient. His lecture series was selected as the featured topic on CD ROM to be available to the ASHT membership.

Mark is a frequent presenter at conferences, including the APTAnj annual conference, the InNovations and Sports Medicine conferences at the Philadelphia Eagles Complex, and the Cincinnati Fracture conference. He authored the shoulder chapter in the textbook Fundamentals of Hand Therapy: Clinical Reasoning and Treatment Guidelines for Common Diagnoses of the Upper Extremity, which was published in 2014. Mark continues to manage the NovaCare Medford outpatient clinic, where the majority of his caseload is brachial plexopathy, shoulder, and spine patients.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Yvonne Morris, OTR/L, CHT is an occupational therapist/hand therapist who had broad clinical experience in Ireland and England before working as a traveling therapist throughout the US. Since obtaining her certification in hand therapy in 2001, she has specialized in the treatment of pediatric hand patients at Valley Children’s Hospital in California’s Central Valley.

 She has presented on pediatric hand therapy topics at several national and international professional conferences. She is the author of a pre-school children’s book entitled “The Bear in the Bookstore”.

is a pediatric hand therapist. She worked as an occupational therapist/hand therapist at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California from 1982-2017. During those 35 years, she gained expertise in pediatric hand therapy and special skills in creative orthotic intervention and developed the pediatric hand therapy program for the hospital.

She is currently devoting her time to sharing her knowledge with the therapy community by teaching continuing education courses. Since 2007, she has been a national CEU instructor for Rehab Education, LLC.

Jill has authored several journal articles, two chapters on pediatric splinting/orthotic intervention, and she has co-authored a book entitled “101 Creative Therapy Ideas.”  She has presented at multiple national and international conferences for professional organizations.

is a Doctor of Physical Therapy currently practicing in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and is also licensed to practice in Hawaii.  She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Exercise Science and Sport Studies from Rutgers University in 1994, a Master of Science in Physical Therapy from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 2002, and a Doctorate of Physical Therapy from UMDNJ in 2004. She routinely works as a Clinical Instructor for DPT students, and contributes to Kinesio Taping curriculum development.

Dr. Scarano Ward has practiced in various physical therapy settings including acute-rehabilitation; hospital in-patient and out-patient therapy; and home-care environments. The majority of her practice, however, has been in out-patient orthopedics, where she integrates neuromuscular rehabilitation and manual therapies with exercise prescription to optimize patient care. 

Dr. Scarano Ward is certified as a Level One Sports Performance Coach for the USA Weightlifting Association, and in 2017 became a Certified Kinesio Taping instructor. Ultimately, she finds that all these components are invaluable in optimizing performance not only for athletes, but for each client she works with in the clinic.

In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Scarano Ward has organized and worked in the Recovery Tent for the New Jersey Marathon 2012-2015.  She participated in the Transplant Games in Cleveland, Ohio in 2016, and continues to be active in marathon, triathlon, and competitive events as a participant, coach, and clinician. Dr. Scarano Ward is also a member of the USGA US Open Performance and Recovery Team, where she has worked with amateur and professional golfers and caddies during championship events.

Classes taught by Christine Scarano Ward:

• Kinesio Taping Foundations

has been a practicing pediatric occupational therapist for the last forty-five years. Over the last twenty years, she has developed a specialty expertise in the treatment of infants and children with obstetric brachial plexus injuries. In addition to being the primary therapist for The Neonatal Brachial Plexus Center in New Jersey with a group of pediatric neurologists, she has served as the National Therapist Consultant for the Texas Nerve and Paralysis Institute where her responsibilities included consultation to therapists, parents, and physicians, primary involvement in clinics nationally in coordination with top level surgeons and brachial plexus specialists, and participation in brachial plexus seminars which address state-of-the-art surgical and treatment interventions. She continues to consult with surgeons, therapists, and parents both nationally and internationally as well as providing educational webinars to parents and therapists.

Pia is the owner and founder of KEYtoCP™. Pia is a a pediatric physical therapist with more than 35 years of experience working with children with cerebral palsy. She graduated from PT education in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1981 and earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from AT Still University in 2008. Pia has completed extensive continuing education and has teaching experience in pediatrics/neurology, coaching and use of EMG biofeedback, neuromuscular stimulation and functional electrical stimulation. Pia worked closely with Karen Pape, MD as the systematic, intensive model used at KEYtoCP™ was developed.

is a licensed Physical Therapist with over 40 years of clinical practice treating difficult pain syndromes, entrapment neuropathies and other musculoskeletal and neurological injuries. She graduated from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN with a Masters Degree and then a Doctorate in Physical Therapy.

Dr. Stralka and two other colleagues wrote the first examination for the Orthopedic Specialty Certification through the American Board of Physical Therapy. She serves on the nomination committee for The Academy of Hand and Upper Extremity of the American Physical Therapy Association.

She has many publications to her credit and the two most recent were Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (2019) in Fundamentals of Hand Therapy, 3rd edition and Graded Motor Imagery in the last edition of Rehabilitation of the Hand in 2018.

Dr. Stralka has presented many courses to physicians and other health care individuals. She lectures both nationally and internationally. In December 2019 she lectured in Malmo, Sweden for the Hand and Upper Extremity Post graduate courses, and at the International Federation Society of Hand Therapist in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Dr. Stralka has received numerous honors throughout her career and was the recipient of the Dorothy B. Kaufmann Lectureship Award by the Philadelphia Hand Rehabilitation Foundation. In 2016, she was one of the recipients of the Honored Professors Award at the Philadelphia Hand Symposium. In 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2019 she had the privilege of seeing patients, lecturing and working with Dr. Birgitta Rosen OT, PhD at the Skane University Hospital in Malmo, Sweden. Susan continues to work part-time seeing patients, lecturing and teaching webinars.

Classes taught by Susan W. Stralka:

• Mirror Therapy: Retrain the Brain to Alter Pain and Improve Movement and Function