Who we are

Brazil – Chair of the INPA Movement Disorders Special Interest Group

Tamine Capato is a board-certified neurological physiotherapy and movement disorders specialist. She completed her Ph.D. at University of São Paulo (Brazil 2020) and Radboud University (Netherlands 2022). Currently, she works as post-doc and clinical researcher at the Department of Neurology of both Universities. Coming from a strong clinical background as a physiotherapist and supervising students, her research focuses on identifying and developing new clinical assessments and multidisciplinary approaches to improve gait and postural instability in Parkinson’s disease and related Movement Disorders. Member of Executive Committee Member of International Neurological Physical Therapy Association (INPA) and Chair of Movement Disorder Special Group. Executive Committee Member of Pan American session International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (PAS-MDS), and Co-Chair of Women in Movement Disorders SIG (MDS). Member of Peer Review Group for Parkinson’s Disease to the Development of World Health Organization’s (WHO) Package of Interventions for Rehabilitation.

Jordan – Vice Chair of the INPA Movement Disorders Special Interest Group

Dr Hanan Khalil is an Associate Professor of neurological rehabilitation at Qatar University, College of Health Sciences, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Doha, Qatar. Dr. Khalil is a researcher in the area of rehabilitation and exercise and related outcome measures in people with Long Term Neurological Conditions (LTNCs) namely multiple sclerosis (MS), dementia and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Further research interest includes cross-cultural adaptation and validation of outcome measures in Arabic language as well as motor learning and the impact of exercise on improving non-motor symptoms in these populations such as sleep, cognition an mood. More recently, Dr. Khalil is also involved in the area of mental health specifically in the area of trauma-informed care for traumatized individuals.

As part of her PhD degree at Cardiff University-UK and for the past 10 years, Dr. Khalil has been actively involved in these areas of research. She successfully obtained funding (as a principal investigator) and led clinical several studies (both observational and interventional) in people with neurological diseases and mental health issues. Dr. Khalil was a member of the International Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders society (MDS) task force for the Middle East and currently is a member of the MDS working group for the Middle East. Through this, Dr. Khalil led two multi-site projects for translating and validating standardised outcome measures in PD in Arabic language. She also led several MDS educational courses in the area of rehabilitation for people with neurological diseases for the allied health professions.  As a recognition of her research and scholarly activities, Dr. Khalil won the L’Oréal UNESCO for Women In Science Levant fellowship in 2018 and further she was selected for the TechWomen Emerging Leader Program award as well as for the International Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders’ Society (MDS) LEAP program for young leaders of 2019. Further, she was selected to participate in a number of WHO advisory committees in the area of brain health and neurodegeneration.

UK – Secretary 1 of the INPA Movement Disorders Special Interest Group

Luxembourg – Past Chair of the INPA Movement Disorders Special Interest Group

Mariella is the physiotherapy trainer at ParkinsonNet Luxembourg, member of the ParkinsonNet international network. She is one of the authors of the European Physiotherapy Guideline for Parkinson’s and is committed to implement research-based physiotherapy practice. Mariella runs her neurological practice at Esch-sur- Alzette. She is also past chair of the Movement Disorder INPA subgroup, and past President of the Association of Physiotherapists in Parkinson’s Disease Europe (2000-2018).