CV

Vanessa Seijas joined Prof. Carla Sabariego's team to work on Rehabilitation and Healthy Ageing at the University of Lucerne and at the Swiss Paraplegic Research in Nottwil in September 2021.

Vanessa completed medical school at the University of Antioquia, Colombia, in 2013 and became a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician in 2017. She got interested in rehabilitation since she was in the school of medicine. In 2011 Vanessa joined the Rehabilitation in Health Research group, first as a research assistant and later as a researcher and adjunct professor in the Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine of the University of Antioquia. At the research group, she developed Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Colombian Government, measured disability and quality of life in older adults who suffered a road traffic accident, and developed a University Model for the inclusion in higher education of people with Intellectual Disability. From 2020 until she joined the University of Lucerne, she worked at the Sensory functions, Disability, and Rehabilitation Unit at the World Health Organization (WHO) in the development of Packages on Interventions for Rehabilitation, part of the WHO Rehabilitation 2030 initiative.  From 2012 until today, she has been a member of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation and WHO Liasion committee. Currently, she serves as the committee's secretary. She is currently doing an MPH in epidemiology at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health.