Rate My Professor Christine Dy

Christine Dy is the Director and Professor in the School of Kinesiology within the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Los Angeles. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. As an Associate Professor of Kinesiology, she specializes in motor learning/control and neuromuscular rehabilitation, with a focus on spinal cord injury. Dy directs the Spinal Cord Injury Exercise Research (SCIER) lab at the university's Mobility Center in Alhambra, where her team investigates how therapeutic exercises, including body weight-supported treadmill training using Robomedica and LiteGait devices, improve motor control, functional movement, and physical fitness in persons with paralysis. The lab utilizes wireless electromyography to record muscle activity during locomotor training and rehabilitation sessions. She teaches courses such as KIN 3650 Motor Learning and Development and serves as interim director for lecturer pools in kinesiology.

Dy's research has contributed to interdisciplinary efforts, including a federal grant awarded to Cal State LA to enhance fitness among wheelchair users with spinal cord injuries, in collaboration with colleagues like Ray de Leon and Deborah Won. Her scholarly output includes 27 publications listed on ResearchGate, with 1,997 citations. Notable works encompass 'Unilateral baseball pitching: morphological and functional adaptations in the neck muscles' (2025), 'Teaching somebody else makes you a better person: A phenomenological exploration of the importance of informal peer support for individuals with spinal cord injury' (2023), 'It Helps Me With Everything: A Qualitative Study of the Importance of Exercise for Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury' (2022), 'Association between muscle aerobic capacity and whole-body peak oxygen uptake' (2020), 'The Effect of Exercise on Sexual Satisfaction and Sexual Interest for Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury' (2020), 'EMG-driven exergaming in wheelchairs on a mobile platform: Bench and pilot testing of the WOW-Mobile fitness system' (2019), and 'Energy Expenditure and Heart Rate Responses to Increased Loading in Individuals With Motor Complete Spinal Cord Injury Performing Body Weight–Supported Exercises' (2015). She has mentored graduate students, including Casanova Scholars like Raquel Rojas, and hosted visiting Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Coletti in 2025. Dy has participated in academic senate committees on space management and supports community programs at the Mobility Center.