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School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education

David Kennedy

Profile image of Doctor David Kennedy

Associate Professor

Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education

Accepting graduate students

Contact:
Office: MCK 124
ORCID:
0000-0002-7205-0117
Credentials:
BA, BSc and MSc (University of New Mexico), PhD (University of New South Wales)
Area(s) of expertise:
Pain perception and its physiological, psychological, and behavioural drivers; neurophysiology of sensory processing; perceptual influences on movement and function; sensory feedback in neurological conditions (particularly stroke and multiple sclerosis) and in healthy populations.

Dr. Kennedy is an Associate Professor. Dr. Kennedy is US trained physiotherapist with 20+ yrs of clinical practice experience. His interest is in perception and how it affects movement and function and aims to better understand human movement and reduce motor impairments to improve health outcomes.

Research interests

Dr. Kennedy’s research examines how perceptual, cognitive, and environmental factors shape the experience of pain and influence movement. His work focuses on the mechanisms that drive pain perception, pain-related behaviour, and recovery, using tools such as augmented reality, motion capture, and physiological monitoring to study how context and learning alter pain responses. He is deeply involved in pain education and knowledge translation, co-founding One Thing (https://www.youtube.com/@OneThing_Pain) to make contemporary pain science accessible to clinicians, educators, and the public.

In addition to his primary focus on pain, Dr. Kennedy also investigates perceptual and sensory deficits after stroke, particularly unilateral spatial neglect, to improve assessment and functional outcomes.

Selected publications

For updates on our research, student projects, and new pain education initiatives, visit the NPR Lab website: https://nprlab.uvic.ca/