Sean Collins
Dr. Collins joined Plymouth State University in June 2015 as the founding Program Director to develop and implement the DPT program. He was previously on faculty in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (1998 – 2015), having served as Chair of the PT Department (2008 – 2013) and Program Director of the DPT program (2008 – 2012), with a dual appointment to the Biomedical Engineering PhD program (2010-2015).
In the Fall of 2020, after PSU-DPT program earned initial accreditation, Dr. Collins began the process of relinquishing his administrative role in the DPT program to return to a focus on teaching and scholarship. In the Fall of 2022, he was named Professor of Clinical Inquiry to align his title with his current teaching and scholarship responsibilities.
He earned a BS in Exercise Physiology (1992), MS in Physical Therapy (1994) and an ScD in Work Environment (concentration in Human factors/ergonomics and epidemiology) (2003) from UMass Lowell. Dr. Collins’ current research interests include the application of human factors and cognitive engineering to better understand and teach information processing and decision making under uncertainty using models, simulation, and game-based learning. Dr. Collins has over 50 publications and presentations in peer-reviewed journals; has presented at local, national, and international conferences, was editor of the cardiopulmonary physical therapy journal from 2016 to 2021 and was awarded the Linda Crane Lecture Award in 2018 by the American Physical Therapy Association for making outstanding and enduring contributions to the profession.
Dr. Collins teaches clinical physiology, and a three-course sequence in clinical inquiry (statistical modeling and application of research to practice decisions) in the DPT program; Science or Pseudoscience in the Philosophy program, and has taught undergraduate courses in anatomy and physiology, kinesiology, exercise physiology and exercise prescription, and PhD courses in biomedical engineering.
Dr. Sean Collins joined the Men’s Soccer staff for the fall of 2021, in the position of Director of Soccer Analytics. He heads up the programs’ Sports Science work using GPS tracking technology, heart rate monitoring and their relationships to physical, technical, and tactical performance. This project aligns with Dr. Collins’ interest in information processing and decision making under uncertainty.
Dr. Collins research contributions are available at his ResearchGate Profile and occasionally writes a blog and posts podcasts at https://peripateticpt.substack.com/.
