Khatija Westbrook

Khatija Westbrook – Assistant Professor, Mount Royal University

Education: Khatija completed Bachelor degrees in both physical and health education in 1988 (BPHE) and physiotherapy in 1993 (BSc(PT) ) at the University of Toronto. In 1995, she was certified as an Athletic Therapist in Canada (CAT(C)) and went on to complete her Masters of Science (MSc) in Physical Education and Recreation (2000) at the University of Alberta. The focus of her research was based on investigating the rates and causes of injury with the Canadian Women’s National Field Hockey Team. She continued her graduate studies at the University of Alberta, investigating the relationship of movement repetition and muscle imbalance with low back pain in elite field hockey players completing her doctoral degree in 2005. 

Current Work: In addition to instructing in the Advanced Certificate of Athletic Therapy

Program, Khatija is the Head Therapist for Cougar Athletics. In this role, she provides care for injured athletes in the practice, game and clinical settings. She also mentors student therapists placed with Mount Royal’s intercollegiate teams.

Instructor Profile: Khatija worked at the University of Toronto’s David L. MacIntosh Sports Injury Clinic and then at the University of Alberta, working predominantly with field hockey, volleyball and football.

Clinically, she has engaged in many continuing education experiences including acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, and visceral manipulation, in addition to physical therapy orthopaedic specialization.

Community Service/Research Interests:

Opening Ceremonies from the XV Pan American Games Rio 2007

Khatija’s current research interests focus sport epidemiology. She continues to investigate injury causation and prevention, including effective training of muscular endurance to match repetition of movement in practices. In addition, she is interested in isokinetic low back muscle balance profiles and their relationship to lower back pain in college athletes.

Khatija also chairs the Program Accreditation Committee of the Canadian Athletic Therapist’s Association (CATA). This committee evaluates and accredits University and College programs delivering athletic therapy curricula.

Khatija worked as a therapist with the Canadian Women’s Junior and Senior National Field Hockey Teams for over 15 years, and continues to work with Canadian Wrestling and Tae Kwan Do teams. She has been involved in providing medical services during major sports events including the World Master’s Games and World Championships in Basketball, Special Olympics, Ultimate and Track and Field. She has been selected to represent Canada on the core medical teams for Pan American, Commonwealth and World Student Games.