Danielle Levac

Bouvé College of Health Sciences Assistant Professor, Physical Therapy, Movement & Rehabilitation Science

Danielle Levac is a physical therapist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences, with an affiliate position in the Department of Bioengineering, at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. She directs the Rehabilitation Games and Virtual Reality Laboratory, where her research and scholarship focuses on the sustainable, evidence-based integration of virtual reality (VR) and active video games into rehabilitation practice. A main goal of her research program is to explore the ‘active ingredients’ of practice in virtual environments for motor learning and transfer in children with neuromotor impairments. She uses motor learning paradigms in a variety of virtual environments to understand how task practice conditions impact motor learning processes and outcomes. Additionally, she works with therapists to develop, evaluate and translate knowledge about evidence-based tools and resources supporting VR/AVG clinical decision-making skills. Dr. Levac co-leads student projects through Enabling Engineering, working to develop low-cost VR-based tools and technologies for persons with disabilities. She is on the Editorial Board of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, the Board of Directors of the International Society for Virtual Rehabilitation and serves on the research committee of the American Physical Therapy Association Academy of Pediatrics. Her research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, the Deborah Munroe Noonan Foundation, the Charles H. Hood Foundation and the Tufts Medical Center Clinical and Translational Science Institute.