Kathleen Martin Ginis

Chair Preventive Medicine, Director Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management

Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, Faculty of Health and Social Development, School of Health and Exercise Sciences, Southern Medical Program
Other Titles: Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Health and Exercise Sciences; UBC Distinguished University Scholar
Office: Reichwald Health Sciences Centre
Phone: 250.807.9187
Email: kathleen_martin.ginis@ubc.ca


Research Summary

Dr. Martin Ginis focuses on understanding and changing physical activity behaviour. She has a particular interest in physical activity among people with spinal cord injury and other types of physical disabilities.

Courses & Teaching

HES 491 Honour's Thesis Seminar
HES 490 Project in Health and Exercise Sciences
MED 419 Year 1 FLEX
MED 429 Year 2 FLEX
MED 449 Year 4 FLEX

Biography

Dr. Kathleen Martin Ginis is a Distinguished University Scholar and a Professor in the Department of Medicine (Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) and in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at The University of British Columbia. She holds the Reichwald Family Chair in Preventive Medicine and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology, and as is an International Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology.

The focus of Dr. Martin Ginis’s research is placed on understanding and changing physical activity behaviour, particularly among people living with spinal cord injury. She is deeply committed to knowledge translation; specifically, the development and implementation of evidence-based best-practices to improve health and well-being among people with disabilities. By example, Dr. Martin Ginis spearheaded the formulation and knowledge translation of scientific exercise guidelines for adults with spinal cord injury. These guidelines have been translated into nearly 20 languages and are used worldwide in clinical and community settings.

Dr. Martin Ginis has received over $20 million in research funding and published over 400 scientific papers. In 2021, she led the Lancet’s first-ever paper on physical activity in people with disabilities, for the Lancet’s quadrennial Physical Activity Series. Her research frequently appears in the media and has been featured on CBC’s Quirks & Quarks, and in The Globe & Mail, The National Post, The New York Times, “O” The Oprah Magazine, Men’s Health & Fitness, and Shape Magazine, among others.

Dr. Martin Ginis lives and works in Kelowna, British Columbia, on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation. She enjoys running, kayaking and snowshoeing.

Websites

Degrees

Dr. Martin Ginis completed a B.Sc. in Psychology at the University of Toronto, her PhD in Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo, and postdoctoral training at Wake Forest University.

Research Interests & Projects

Dr. Martin Ginis’s program focuses on understanding and changing physical activity behaviour. She has a particular interest in physical activity among people with spinal cord injury and other types of physical disabilities. Although most of her work addresses the psychosocial mechanisms and consequences of physical activity behaviour change, she often collaborates with multi-disciplinary teams to study various health-related outcomes associated with physical activity participation (e.g., weight loss, cardiovascular disease risk, pain). She also works closely with numerous community-based organizations on research and knowledge translation projects to advance physical activity and other types of social participation among Canadians with disabilities (www.cdpp.ca).

Dr. Martin Ginis has a profound commitment to knowledge translation; specifically, the development and implementation of evidence-based best-practices to improve health and well-being among people with disabilities. Examples of best-practices developed by her team, include formulation of the first evidence-based physical activity guidelines for people with spinal cord injury; implementation of a nation-wide service to provide telephone-based physical activity counseling to adults with physical disabilities; and creation of an online physical activity resource centre to serve the international spinal cord injury communities (www.sciactioncanada.ca).

Selected Publications & Presentations

Please click this link for a list of Dr. Martin Ginis’s publications:

http://tinyurl.com/kmartinginis

 

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