POTSDAM -- Clarkson Professor Emeritus of Physical Therapy Leslie Russek has been appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) Committee on Selected Heritable Connective Tissue Disorders and Disability.

Russek, who lives in Potsdam, is a nationally recognized expert in the area of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), a group of inherited disorders that mostly affects the skin, joints, and blood vessels.

Since 2016, Russek has been a member of the International Physiotherapy Working Group for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Hypermobility Type, a team working to coordinate international research priorities about hEDS.

Russek joined the Department of Physical Therapy in 1997 and was instrumental in developing the problem-based learning (PBL) physical therapy program. The program helps students learn how to be effective as a team, as well as learning physical therapy content through active engagement in patient case studies.

Russek trains both students and faculty in how to effectively implement PBL. She teaches pain science throughout the curriculum and wrote the chronic pain chapter in one of the most widely used physical therapy textbooks.