Lisa Chu-Swenski grew up in Sparks, Nevada, graduating from Sparks High School in 1988. She studied athletic training and health science at the University of Nevada, Reno and received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1993. After graduating from UNR, she continued to work with the athletes at the university, both in the training room and on the sideline.
In 1995, Lisa began physical therapy school at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, one of only two programs in the United States at the time to offer the entry level clinical doctorate in physical therapy. While at USC, her clinical internship sites included nationally renowned Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. During physical therapy school, Lisa also worked as an athletic trainer for the USC University Hospital Center for Athletic Medicine.
Lisa received her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree (DPT) from the University of Southern California in 1998, which at the time made Lisa part of only the second group of students in the country ever to receive the clinical doctorate in physical therapy.
Dr. Chu-Swenski returned to Sparks, Nevada in 1998 to work in a local inpatient rehabilitation hospital setting, treating patients with a wide variety of neurologic and orthopedic impairments such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, total hip and knee replacement, multi-trauma injuries, and Parkinson’s disease. For the past seven years, she has worked in a local private practice outpatient physical therapy clinic specializing in a manual therapy approach to treatment of orthopedic conditions, particularly neck and back disorders. Dr. Chu-Swenski lives in Sparks, Nevada with her husband and two children.