IOA Staff
Tiffany E. Shubert, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Dr. Tiffany E. Shubert is a Research Scientist at the Institute on Aging. She also will have an Adjunct Assistant Professor position in the UNC Division of Physical Therapy.
Dr. Shubert received a BA in Communication at the University of California at San Diego, a Master’s of Physical Therapy from the University of California at San Francisco, and her Ph.D. in May 2007 from the Curriculum in Human Movement Science at UNC Chapel Hill.
Dr. Shubert teaches advanced geriatric courses to masters and doctorate students in the division of Physical Therapy. As part of the Donald W. Reynolds grant through the Division of Geriatrics, she developed and teaches a course for third year medical students titled “The Stealth Geriatrician”. This course takes place monthly at local retirement communities, and provides medical students the knowledge and the skills necessary to perform geriatric functional assessments. She also helped create a clinical exam for medical students to assess their abilities to identify older adults at risk of a fall.
Dr. Shubert’s research is focused on identifying factors that contribute to healthy aging. Her dissertation research included the development of a “Variety of Activity Questionnaire”, which quantifies weekly participation in cognitive, social, physical and exercise activities for older adults. Her research interests focus on developing community based interventions to promote physical activity for older adults. She is currently working on a CDC funded “Senior Grant” to assess the health promotion programming offered to older adults throughout North Carolina and to quantify health conditions for older adults at the county level
Dr. Shubert is a practicing physical therapist and is responsible for implementing the satellite clinic of the Division of Physical Therapy Faculty Practice at the Orange County Senior Center. She is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association, the Gerontological Society of America, and the International Society for Aging and Physical Activity.
She lives in Chapel Hill with her husband and daughter, and when not at work or being a mom, trains for triathalons and distance running events.
Email: tshubert@med.unc.edu
