Michael Harris-Love

Michael Harris-Love (born 1968), is an American physical therapist, rehabilitation scientist, and academic administrator.

He is a professor within the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the inaugural Joanne Posner-Mayer Endowed Chair in Physical Therapy.

He also serves as a Health Scientist at the VA Eastern Colorado Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC).

His research focus is the development of sonographic methods for sarcopenia and myosteatosis screening, and characterizing skeletal muscle adaptations in response to exercise-based interventions in older adults with chronic health conditions.

Harris-Love has contributed to the development of the core set measures for international myositis clinical trials as a member of the International Myositis Outcomes Assessment Study Group.

As a clinician-investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, he initiated the development of the Adult Myopathy Assessment Tool.

Harris-Love has attained Fellowship status within the Gerontological Society of America and the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).

Harris-Love was born and raised in the Krainz Woods neighborhood in East Detroit, MI.

He completed his undergraduate studies at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, AZ as a NASA Arizona Space Grant Consortium Intern under the direction of NAU Regents’ Professor, Stan L. Lindstedt.

Harris-Love received his baccalaureate degree in Exercise Science/Physical Education with honors from Northern Arizona University (NAU) earning the Exercise Science Graduate of the Year award from the NAU College of Health Professions.

He earned his master's degree in Physical Therapy from the Mayo School of Health Sciences in Rochester, MN and was named the recipient of the Erik J. Aasen Award.

Harris-Love was the first African American male to graduate from the Mayo School of Health Sciences Physical Therapy Program (following Denise Kinlaw, his former instructor, who graduated from the Mayo PT Program in 1972).

He completed his doctorate in Health Sciences from the University of Indianapolis and was selected for a NIH/NCRR K30 post-doctoral fellowship with the DC Clinical Research Training Consortium through Georgetown University and Children’s National Hospital.

Harris-Love completed additional education and training as a Butler-Williams Scholar through the NIH National Institute on Aging and as a fellow for the United States Bone and Joint Decade Young Investigator Initiative.

Harris-Love has held a variety of positions over the past two decades at medical centers with the Veterans Health Administration and at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD.

He joined the NIH Clinical Center PT Section as a Staff Physical Therapist and progressed to the role of Rheumatology Clinical Specialist.

He was instrumental in establishing the Strength Assessment Laboratories at both the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center and the Washington DC VAMC Clinical Research Center following their construction in 2004 and 2015, respectively.

He served as co-investigator within the Intramural Research Program (NIH IRP) at the NIH Clinical Center in support of clinical and research activities at NIEHS, NIAMS, NINDS, and NHGRI.

Harris-Love led the development of the Adult Myopathy Assessment Tool (AMAT) to provide a battery for the assessment of functional performance and observed muscle endurance for individuals with intrinsic muscle disease.

The AMAT continues to be used in the NIH IRP and it has been featured in multiple NIH-sponsored clinical trials.

He was also the primary research physical therapist for the Rituximab in Myositis Study which featured 31 international sites with 20 adult and 11 pediatric centers (cited > 680 times as of April 2024).

Based on his research contributions to the field of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, Harris-Love was appointed as the first physical therapist to serve on the Myositis Association’s Medical Advisory Board in 2005.

Harris-Love is the Director of the Muscle Morphology, Mechanics, and Performance Laboratory (3MAP Lab), founding the group in 2013 at the Washington DC VAMC jointly with the Research Service and Geriatrics and Extended Care Service.

The laboratory group’s research contributions at the medical center included raising sarcopenia awareness through publications focused on federal healthcare and presenting a VA Center for Innovation project (with the San Francisco VA Medical Center) regarding sarcopenia screening in VA Renal Clinics to VA Under Secretary for Health, David Shulkin, and other VHA staff.

Harris-Love was the founding Co-Director for the Rehabilitation Research Fellowship Program at the Washington DC VAMC, and he later served as the Associate Director of the Human Performance Research Unit within the DC VAMC Clinical Research Center.

His national-level service during this time included his appointment to the Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center Advisory Subcommittee for the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as his elected position as Vice-Chair of the Degenerative Diseases Special Interest Group within the APTA Neurology Section.

Harris-Love served as a physical therapist at the Clinic Hospital Methodist Campus and St. Marys Campus, and then in the Rehabilitation Medicine Department at the NIH Clinical Center, prior to his academic appointment at George Washington University (GW) in Washington, DC.

He initially served as core faculty for the Program in Physical Therapy at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and later was appointed as an Associate Clinical Professor within the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Harris-Love developed a prototype for force-angle feedback augmented diagnostic ultrasound with 3MAP Lab colleagues and Kevin Cleary at the Bioengineering Initiative at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation within Children's National Medical Center.

During this time, he advanced clinical approaches to sarcopenia screening using diagnostic ultrasound at the APTA Innovation 2.0 Workshop in Alexandria, VA and the 8th Annual Medical Electronic Device Realization Center Workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.

In 2019, Harris-Love accepted a Visiting Professor appointment at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and succeeded Margaret Schenkman to become the 9th Director in the 71 year-history of the University of Colorado Physical Therapy Program.

He prioritized post-professional education as a program goal and worked with faculty to attain accreditation of Physical Therapy Residencies in Orthopaedics with UCHealth and Faculty Development.

In his role as Associate Dean of Physical Therapy Education within the CU School of Medicine, he led the effort to gain approval for a hybrid pathway to the DPT degree in partnership with the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

He also collaborated with other program faculty to expand the early admissions program with the University of Colorado Denver campus and establish a DPT-MPH dual degree track in partnership with the Colorado School of Public Health in 2022.

Additionally, Harris-Love serves CU PM&R as the Vice Chair of Learning, Development, and Inclusion, and he is the founding Co-Chair of the APTA Colorado Chapter Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

He also continues his clinical research through his joint appointment with the Rocky Mountain Regional VAMC and the VA Eastern Colorado GRECC.

As of April 2024, Harris-Love's 102 research items have garnered 4,878 citations, yielding an h-index of 30.

Key publications from Harris-Love and his collaborators have centered on assessing muscle dysfunction, developing clinically viable approaches to quantitative imaging, and applying exercise-based rehabilitation to improve muscle performance:

Selected awards or other forms of recognition for Harris-Love’s contributions to physical therapy in the areas of education, research, clinical work, service, and administration are as follows: