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Amy McArthur, PhD, OTR/L is a post-doctoral fellow who works with the Rehabilitation and Research Training Center (RRTC) on Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. The RRTC, funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, focuses on improving person-centered HCBS delivery.
McArthur was introduced to the RRTC through her former colleague, Jacqueline Kish, PhD, OTR/L, a post-doctoral fellow funded by the RRTC. Both McArthur and Kish earned their PhDs in disability studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, though McArthur completed hers later, earning her doctorate in August 2024. She earned her master’s in occupational therapy from Tufts University in 2014.
A key figure in McArthur’s academic and professional development is Allen Heinemann, PhD, Director of the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. McArthur is also mentored by Sofia Garcia, PhD, Professor of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University and Director of the Cancer Survivorship Institute of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, as well as Neil Jordan, PhD, Director of the Center for Education in Health Sciences and Director of the Mental Health Services & Policy Program at Northwestern University.
“Amy brings a wealth of experience as an occupational therapist and disability scholar” according to Dr. Heinemann. “She appreciates the lived experience of people with disabilities and chronic illness and brings a perspective and methods from her disability scholarship.”
McArthur typically meets with her mentors bi-weekly to provide updates on her work, discuss challenges, get feedback on research issues, and get guidance on securing grant funding to further her career as a researcher.
“My mentors have been really helpful in guiding me towards people I might want to know and what grants to put on my radar,” she says.
As part of the RRTC on HCBS, McArthur contributes to a case study project to identify best practices for providing person-centered HCBS. This project involves analyzing interviews with both HCBS providers and recipients to uncover key themes. “So far I’ve been coding some of the interviews to help identify key themes,” McArthur says.
McArthur earned her occupational therapy degree at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and worked as an occupational therapist for five years prior to pursuing her PhD, including at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.
In addition to seeing patients at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, she worked with Mary Ellen Stoykov, PhD, a research scientist and principal investigator in Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s High Intensity Lab. “The project involved examining the use of bilateral priming techniques before occupational therapy intervention to improve hand function for stroke survivors,” says McArthur. “I was an interventionist for that project and got to work with participants to see how effective that priming approach was in improving upper extremity function.”
McArthur’s research experience also includes collaborations with Zev Rymer, MD, PhD, Director of Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s Sensory Motor Performance Program and research scientist Milap Sandhu, PhD, PT, in exploring the use of intermittent hypoxia for people with spinal cord injury and upper extremity function. Additionally, she worked with Nina Suresh, PhD, Co-director of the Single Motor Unit Lab at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, on documenting changes in upper extremity muscle function following both chronic and acute stroke.
“My research at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab had more of a biomechanical focus than the research I do now with the HCBS team,” says McArthur. “But I think it was good to be in that space and kind of learn from people who are experienced researchers, and it also helped me to narrow my research interests to get to where I am now
Looking to the future, McArthur aims to secure a faculty position within healthcare academia in Chicago after completing her postdoctoral fellowship. “As an occupational therapist, I’ve seen firsthand how important it is for people to live life on their own terms, and that’s been a deeply rewarding part of my career," McArthur says. "But my decision to pursue a PhD stemmed from recognizing that the healthcare system doesn’t always meet the needs of people as effectively as it could. I want to leverage my clinical experience to help patients navigate healthcare systems and contribute a clinician’s perspective to my research.”