Biography

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Susan Magasi, PhD (Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy). Dr. Magasi earned her PhD in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Upon completion of her post-doctoral fellowships in outcomes and health services research at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Dr. Magasi joined David Cella’s Center for Outcomes Research and Education before accepting a faculty position in the Department of Medical Social Science at Northwestern University. Dr. Magasi served as a co-investigator on several major NIH-funded instrument development initiatives including the NIH Toolbox Assessment for Neurological and Behavioral and the NIH PROMIS Initiative. Dr. Magasi is a qualitative methodologist on numerous federal, foundation and industry-sponsored research grants. A frequent guest lecturer in qualitative methods, Dr. Magasi has presented her qualitative work nationally and internationally. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming special issue “Current Thinking in Qualitative Research: Evidence-based practice, moral philosophies, and political struggle” in the journal OTJR: Occupation, Participation, and Health. Dr. Magasi is deeply committed to the identification and elimination of health and healthcare disparities experienced by people with disabilities. Based on a deep-seated belief that people who experience health and participation inequities are best situated to identify both the source of their own inequities and potential solutions, she favors the use of mixed methods research within a community-based participatory research model.