Keara McNair-Savage, Ph.D., OTR/L

Keara McNair, PhD, MS, OTR/L, BCPR is a clinician-scientist, doctoral capstone coordinator, and assistant professor at Rutgers University’s School of Health Professions.

Drawing on fifteen years of inpatient rehabilitation experience at SCI model systems centers, her scholarship spans functional prognostication in complex medical rehabilitation and the development of community-based transitional care models for young adults with SCI. She is the co-founder and research lead of the True Grit SCI Program, a residential transition to adulthood intervention for adolescents and young adults with spinal cord injury.

She serves as Vice Chair of the ASIA Education Committee, Non-Traumatic SCI Task Force Chair of ACRM’s SCI-ISIG, Chair of the ACRM Poster Subcommittee, and a subject matter expert for AOTA’s Board Certification in Physical Rehabilitation. Her teaching philosophy is grounded in competency-based education, emphasizing the balance of autonomy, structure, and accountability. She prepares doctoral students to function as reflective practitioners and emerging scholars by integrating scaffolded coursework, structured mentorship, and applied learning experiences that promote progressive independence.