Casey Chaney is an associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy Education. In this role, Dr. Chaney is responsible for the Physiology of Exercise course and the elective course on the Essentials of Strength and Conditioning.  These courses help prepare students for the credentialing exam to become certified strength and conditioning specialists.  She is also one of the team of faculty members who teach the Musculoskeletal Evaluation and Treatment courses.

Dr. Chaney says she views teaching and learning as a shared and ever-evolving process.  She encourages students to take risks and not to be afraid to fail.  Failure, Dr Chaney adds, is really an opportunity to correct a misunderstanding and to further knowledge or skills.  "Personally, I know the more I learn, the more I realize how much more I need to learn," she says. "So when it comes to mentoring students toward the best strategy for learning for becoming involved in our profession or treating patients or doing research, it is something I try to do first by example."

Recently, Dr. Chaney has been researching the efficacy of McConnell taping in patients with symptoms consistent with shoulder impingement syndrome.  She is in the final stages of data analysis and preparing to write about Phase II of her research.  Dr. Chaney also has an interest in researching the impact of a physical therapy program on students' health and fitness.

Dr. Chaney is a member of the California Physical Therapy Association, the American Physical Therapy Association, and the California Research Special Interest Group, on which she serves as executive committee director.

In encouraging students to attend WesternU, Dr. Chaney says: "Life-long learning is an important value not only to me, but to everyone in our profession.  The years spent on formal education to become a physical therapist are truly just the ‘tip of the iceberg' yet, students who attend Western University of Health Sciences lay a solid foundation for a lifetime of learning."