Maria Constantinou

Biography

Dr Maria Constantinou is Professor of Physiotherapy at Southern Cross University with extensive clinical, teaching and research experience. Maria is an Australian Physiotherapy Association Titled Sports and Exercise Physiotherapist, a Fellow of Australian Sports Medicine Federation and a Registered International Sports Physical Therapist.

Research

Maria's research interests comprise the sports injury prevention and surveillance, athlete profiles, physical activity, sports and therapeutic taping and gait and function in hip osteoarthritis. Another of Maria's research areas is the development of competencies for sports physiotherapists for education purposes and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Teaching

Maria’s academic career of teaching and research spans over 25-years. Maria has successfully led the development and delivery of two postgraduate Master courses of Sports Physiotherapy, in 2007 the Master of Musculoskeletal and Sports Physiotherapy at Griffith University and in 2022 the Master of Sports and Exercise Physiotherapy at Australian Catholic University. Maria has taught or presented in over 25 countries and has been involved in supporting the development of Sports Physiotherapists nationally and internationally, through presentation of courses, training and mentoring.

Community engagement

Maria previously served on the Executive Board of the International Federation of Sports Physical Therapy (2011-2019) and the Sports and Exercise Physiotherapy Australia committee (2008-2023). Maria worked at several major sporting events including the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Athens 2004 Olympic Games, the Vancouver Winter 2010 Olympic Games, the Melbourne 2006 and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, where she was the GOLDOC Polyclinic and Team Physiotherapy Programs Coordinator, the Port Moresby 2015 Pacific Games and Vanuatu 2017 Pacific Mini Games. Maria has previously led several successful New Colombo Plan grants which supported the development and implementation of student programs in the Asia Pacific region, including clinical placements for physiotherapy students both in-country and via telehealth.

Supervision

Maria has supervised numerous honours, post-graduate research and PhD students in sports and musculoskeletal physiotherapy and in scholarship of teaching and learning.