Rehabilitation Research & Development Service (RR&D)

Magnuson Award to Linda Resnik, PT, Ph.D

Linda Resnik, PT, Ph.D. - Received the Paul B. Magnuson Award in recognition of her outstanding work with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Study in the Design and Evaluation of Advanced Upper Limb Prostheses and Controls for the DEKA prosthetic arm, her work in the Development and Evaluation of Rehabilitation Outcomes Measures of Veteran community integration, and her leadership in the Collaborative Research Between VA and the Department of Defense (DoD) in the development of the VA/DoD Collaboration Guidebook for Healthcare Research.

Dr. Linda Resnik is a VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Service (RR&D) Research Career Scientist and Professor (Research) in the Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice in the Brown University School of Public Health. She is also Director of Focus Area 2: Restoration of Motor Function: Translating advanced arm prosthetics for limb loss in the VA RR&D funded Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology (CfNN) based at the Providence VA Medical Center. Her research is informed by a 20 year career as a physical therapy clinician, educator, consultant, and community leader. Motivated to address the scarcity of clinically oriented rehabilitation research, she returned to graduate school and completed a doctoral degree in physical therapy. Upon graduation, she pursued additional training in research methods through a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University’s Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research. In 2004, after completing her postdoctoral fellowship, she was appointed Assistant Professor (Research) in the Department of Community Health. In 2004, she was funded by the VA as a core investigator in two new VA research Centers; an HSR&D Targeted Research Enhancement Program (TREP) and an RR&D Center Award and became a VA Research Health Scientist. In 2009, she was promoted to Associate Professor (Research) in the Department of Community Health (subsequently the Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice). In 2014, she became a VA RR&D Research Career Scientist. In 2015 she was promoted to full professor in her academic department.

Dr. Resnik's selfless service to Veterans and Service Members is evident from her work which addresses three important areas of rehabilitation that have specific relevance to Veterans and Service Members with disabilities. These are: 1) design and evaluation of advanced upper limb prostheses and controls; 2) development and evaluation of rehabilitation outcomes measures; 3) study of delivery and effectiveness of rehabilitation services. Additionally, Dr. Resnik has been a leader in promoting collaborative research between VA and DoD.

Dr. Resnik has been at the forefront of VA efforts to advance technology for upper limb amputees. She is a recognized leader in the area of rehabilitation health services research who has helped foster an appreciation for the team approach to rehabilitation of the upper limb amputee. She has made many significant scientific contributions related to the development, evaluation and deployment of standardized outcome measures. Her career contributions in addressing critical research areas common DoD and VA exemplifies the entrepreneurship, humanitarianism, and dedication to Veterans displayed by Dr. Magnuson during his career.