Roberta Shepherd
Roberta Barkworth Shepherd (born 1934) is an Australian physiotherapist. She is known for her work on physiotherapy education and research. Early life Shepherd was born in 1934 in New South Wales, Australia. She studied anatomy, physiotherapy, histology, chemistry and physics at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1956 with a Diploma of Physiotherapy. After winning a Fulbright Fellowship for doctoral study, she went to Columbia University, studying under Ann Gentile. There she received degrees, Master of Arts in 1986 and Doctor of Education in 1991. Career After teaching in paediatrics at the School of Physiotherapy, Shepherd published her first textbook on physiotherapy in paediatrics in 1974 and began a scholarly collaboration with her friend, Janet Carr. They introduced the term "applied movement scientists" for physical therapists. Together they recognised that motor learning/skill acquisition and motor control mechanisms gave information relevant to rehabilitation practice. During their collaboration they published many textbooks together including: Neurological Rehabilitation: Optimizing Motor Performance Stroke Rehabilitation: Guidelines for Exercise and Training to Optimize Motor Skill Physiotherapy in Disorders of the Brain Motor Relearning Programme for Stroke Movement Science: Foundations for Physical Therapy in Rehabilitation Neurological Strokes: Rehabilitation Along with the textbooks written with Carr, Shepherd also wrote