STAND

Justin graduated from Youngstown State University with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2009. After receiving his PT license, Justin moved to Arizona where he now practices manual physical therapy at One Accord Physical Therapy, with a strong interest in headache management, chronic pain, and spine dysfunction. He received his Certification in Spinal Manipulative Therapy and his Certification in Dry Needling from the Spinal Manipulation Institutein 2012 and 2013, respectively. Justin became a Board Certified Orthopedic Specialist in 2013 through the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties. In 2013, he co-founded the Manual Physical Therapy Alliance with the goal of promoting manual physical therapy through legal advocacy, provider education, consumer education, and continuing competency promotion. He later took a position on the Executive Board of Directors for the Arizona Physical Therapy Association. Justin has a passion for education and has experience in designing seminars and teaching on the national stage. 

 

Justin’s passion for humanitarian work began after traveling to Haiti with other medical providers in 2009 to work with amputees. When he realized the extreme need of this population and the impact a multidisciplinary team could have, he turned his attention to creating an organization that could provide such care long term. Justin worked with this organization for five years, recruiting and leading ten orthopedic teams into Haiti and overseeing the care of over 5000 patients. During that time He also worked closely with his alma mater, Youngstown State University, providing projects and clinical experience for physical therapy students in Haiti. In 2012, he received the university's prestigious Alumni of the Year award for his work in Haiti. While Justin feels that this original organization is doing amazing work, he believes that his experience will be better utilized teaching in Haiti and working to create a sustainable system of permanent clinics. This desire led him toward the founding of STAND: the Haiti Project.

Morgan Denny received her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from the University of Montana in 2006. She has focused her work in outpatient orthopedic settings, addressing conditions and people of all sorts, both in the United States and around the globe. Morgan believes that it is hard to be happy without first being healthy, and holds a strong belief that all people should have access to the resources they need to lead able-bodied and fulfilling lives. With this in mind, she began traveling to Haiti to provide rehabilitative therapy in 2013, and found passion in addressing the need in this country.

 

While Morgan’s professional life has focused on physical therapy, she is also a strong advocate for implementing sustainable living practices. She spent two years creating a non-profit project called EcoJaunt, whose mission was to travel throughout the United States creating how-to videos that teach sustainable living tactics, which were then presented at schools and community forums, and on the website EcoJaunt.org.

 

Morgan is a conservationist and strives to reuse everything possible in order to decrease unnecessary waste that will pollute the environment. She has seen the importance of this practice worldwide, in travels through India, Nepal, Fiji, and Haiti, where waste clutters the streets and waterways, creating increasing health concerns. Morgan believes this to be a particularly important concept in Haiti, where the waste disposal system is lacking and water is unsafe for consumption.

 

While her treatment focus in Oregon has included orthopedic conditions and sports rehab, Morgan also enjoys working with pediatric and neurological cases abroad. Before becoming a PT, Morgan worked in a variety of settings (camps, clinics, therapeutic riding facilities) with diverse populations including children and adults with disabilities, varying neurological disorders, and children with systemic diseases, such as cancer and cystic fibrosis.

Luke completed his bachelor’s degree in Health, Behavior, and Society at the University of Rochester and received his Master of Public Health degree from the University of California Davis. He went on to work as a research analyst in the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California. Later he worked as a senior healthcare research analyst at Practice Fusion, a cloud-based electronic health record system in San Francisco, California. 

Luke’s first trip to Haiti in 2010 set in motion a lifelong commitment to population health improvement. He works with the STAND Analytics Team to quantify the quality of life improvement that physical therapy can afford the denizens of Haiti living with pain and disability. Motivated by the staggering prevalence of chronic pain seen in the STAND clinic, Luke became interested in the neurological transition from acute to chronic pain. He is now a PhD student at Dartmouth College studying neuroscience in the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab. It is his intention to integrate his doctoral research and STAND's epidemiological research to improve the clinical treatment of chronic pain in Port-de-Paix and beyond.