The 2019 ARP Awards of Distinction & ACR Masters

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Among the ARP’s highest honors is the Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented to a current or past member who has made meaningful and lasting contributions to the field of rheumatology. This year’s award recipient is Maura Daly Iversen, PT, DPT, SD, MPH, FNAP, FAPTA, professor and director of the Rehabilitation and Epidemiology Lab in the Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston.

“It’s an honor and privilege to receive this award for my work, which is a culmination of successful collaborations with colleagues from institutions in the U.S. and abroad,” says Dr. Iversen. “I feel fortunate to have worked with so many great people.”

For more than 25 years, Dr. Iversen has led a life of leadership and achievement. As a behavioral scientist and clinical epidemiologist in the Department of Medicine, Section of Clinical Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, her research focuses on clinical trials of exercise, behavioral interventions to improve adherence to pharmacologic/non-pharmacologic therapies and technologies to promote physical activity in patients with arthritis. She has played a major role in changing or developing practice standards and guidelines in rheumatology.

Her reputation as a leading scientist and educator is global. Dr. Iversen is an ambassador for the Rheumatology Research Foundation and holds overseas appointments: foreign professor in the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and honorary professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense. As a recognized educator, she has mentored students, developed curricula for universities and published more than 150 papers.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Iversen’s academic credentials are impeccable. She earned a Master of Public Health from Boston University, a DPT from MGH [Massachusetts General Hospital] Institute of Health Professions, Boston, a doctorate in behavioral health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Cambridge, Mass., and completed postdoctoral training in clinical epidemiology in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston. She has won the field’s top awards: She was named a Fellow and Distinguished Scholar by the National Academies of Practice, received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the ACR/ARP, is the Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association and is a Fulbright Research Scholar.

Her passion for rheumatology has encouraged her to contribute to the field in other ways. She is an ARP past president, has served on the board for the ACR’s Rheumatology Research Foundation and was a trustee of the Arthritis Foundation for its Massachusetts office.

Dr. Iversen believes her early involvement with the ARP helped shape her specialty career across the spectrum. “I will always continue to do research,” she says. “But I’m exploring various new roles that would allow me to expand my learning and research opportunities within rheumatology.”