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Published October 21, 2024
By Darlene Muguiro
Â鶹¹ÙÍø College of Health Sciences

This fall, the College of Health Sciences (CHS) is welcoming several new faculty members in Public Health and Physical Therapy.

We are pleased to present the final profile featuring Dr. Priyanka Rana, assistant professor of Physical Therapy and Movement Sciences. Dr. Rana obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physiotherapy, with a specialization in musculoskeletal disorders, in India. She received her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences from the University of Florida.

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Dr. Priyanka Rana recalls when she first realized that she wanted to take the next step in her academic preparation, despite having a successful career in her home country of India as a physical therapist.

“I was working with two different populations, chronic pain patients and athletes, and I noticed that the athletes had much higher pain tolerance and recovered more easily after being injured,” she said. “I began wondering what the difference was and began wanting to do research in that area. This is how I came to the University of Florida for my doctoral degree.”

During her PhD, Rana focused on training the nervous system to improve pain sensitivity, specifically by examining if high-intensity exercises completed by athletes made them more pain tolerant. She quickly learned that the intensity of exercise was not the only factor in athletes’ tolerance to pain – the frequency of exercise also played an important role.

“The more frequently a person gives a painful stimulus to their nervous system (through exercise), the more efficient the system becomes over a period of time. Eventually, a person’s own inhibition system for pain improves,” she said.

In the final year of her PhD, Rana began looking for employment opportunities that would combine her love for research with an equal affection for teaching, and she found Â鶹¹ÙÍø. She says that the university’s R1 status, in particular, attracted her because she was looking for a place where she could continue her research. She is looking to develop interventions that improve pain inhibition, and plans to begin her studies with a young healthy population as a baseline.

Rana admits that prior to her job search, she was not aware of El Paso, and was surprised to learn that the city is located in Texas. Upon first arriving on campus, one of the first things she noticed was the physical proximity of the university to the U.S.-Mexico border. She also realized quickly how closely knit the two communities are.

“There is a really strong sense of community here, and of belonging. In India, we have a similar culture in the sense that people really look out for each other. It impressed me so much, and since then, people have been so wonderful and helpful,” she said.

Along with developing a strong research portfolio, Rana is focusing on developing her teaching strategies. Currently, she is the instructor of record for the PT program’s exercise physiology course. She says that she is extremely impressed by the dedication of her students.

“These students are very hard-working and seem to be very responsible. In my prior experience at the University of Florida, students were not holding part-time jobs while studying. But here, they are waking up very early to go to their jobs and then come to Â鶹¹ÙÍø to study,” she said. “I also feel very connected to them as a first-generation student myself. I understand the struggle they went through to get where they are.”

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Go Miners!

For more information about the Doctor of Physical Therapy program, please visit: /chs/pt.