02/05/2025
On Tuesday, April 29th, at the 2025 Faculty Awards Luncheon, our very own Dr. Alicia Emerson was recognized as a winner of the Winston-Salem State University Emerging Researcher of the Year Award! We congratulate Dr. Emerson on this very prestigious honor, and we are so lucky to have her as a part of our faculty!
Alicia Emerson, DPT, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy in the School of Health Sciences at Winston-Salem State University. Dr. Emerson previously was a physiotherapist for 15 years and worked primarily with uninsured/underserved patient populations with complex medical conditions, negative social determinants of health, and chronic pain. She completed her PhD from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand in 2023, and was awarded the “Exceptional Quality Thesis” by the Division of Health Sciences. Dr. Emerson earned several degrees (MS in Physical Therapy from University of Indianapolis, MS in Rehabilitation Sciences from University of Illinois at Chicago, and a BA in Biology from Illinois Wesleyan University).
She is a Board-Certified Specialist in Orthopaedics and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists. Dr. Emerson received the 2021 Social Impact Award by the American Physical Therapy Association. Her teaching and research interests center on the functional implications in pain processing in complex patient presentations, clinical reasoning for primary care physical therapists, and managing/preventing health inequities, particularly in chronic pain.
