Healthcare That Speaks Dance.

Leigh has been a dancer for over 24 years, and dance introduced her to the world of physical therapy first as a patient, and then as a practitioner. She graduated from the University of Mount Union with her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree and earned her BA in liberal arts with heavy focuses in Athletic Training and strength and conditioning from Daemen College. Although Leigh’s personal dance background is mostly Irish dance, she has worked with ballet, modern, jazz, tap, and ballroom dancers at amateur and professional levels in-clinic and in injury prevention workshops. During one of her clinical rotations in physical therapy school, she attended and participated in a 2-day accreditation sample course for backstage management of performing artists and theater crews. Leigh currently works at Cleveland Clinic Chardon Rehabilitation and Sports Therapy in OH, which is a high-level manual therapy clinic that specializes in complex cases. She uses an approach that analyzes movement and posture to determine where the primary issue is so she can address the root of the problem without just patching the injury and having it return after the dancer is discharged. She also designs injury prevention programs for all dance types on individual and group levels.

Leigh is an active member of the Performing Arts and Foot and Ankle Special Interest Groups in the Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy and the Research Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. She is also active in the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and the Academy of Prevention and Health Promotion Therapies.

Outside of the clinic, she is still a competitive dancer working towards earning her teaching license for Irish dance. In her spare time, she loves to volunteer at the medical tents in marathons and play with her French Bulldog and a leopard gecko.