The Team

Melissa earned her Master's of Physical Therapy (MPT) Degree at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2001. She has worked in a local healthcare system outpatient orthopedic clinic since graduating. Through this experience and numerous continuing education credits, she has gained an invaluable breadth of knowledge in the rehabilitation and prevention of orthopedic injuries.

Melissa is a master's recreational runner. For those of you not familiar with this term as it relates to running, it means she is over 35 years old; and though she is an expert, or master if you will, in the treatment of running injuries, she very much understands that she is not a master of all things running. She continues to learn about a sport she has learned to love more in her later years. Sometimes Melissa is the student learning from her running clients as they in turn learn from her - how cool is that?!

Melissa ran track in high school, but it wasn't until she needed an outlet as a mother to 2 daughters (now 13 and 15 years old) that she brought running back into her life. She has run 3 half marathons, several 5 and 10K races and done a few Ragnar Relays as well. Through all this running, she has had some minor running related injuries, but prides herself on getting over these quickly. She understands what it takes to balance the loads of running with capacity-building exercises to prevent and/or expedite healing of the running athlete.

As a runner herself and as a clinician who has heard other clinicians tell their patients with running injuries not to run, she understands that this is not the solution to the running injury that runners want to (nor should they) hear. She is passionate about helping her running clients keep performing in their sport, and it is rare that she tells them not to run (there are some instances where this is the safe thing to do however!).