Christian Evans, PT, Ph.D.

Dr. Evans obtained his M.S. PT degree in 1990 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and his first job as a physical therapist was at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Medical Center, where he rotated through all of the PT services (wound care, inpatient rehab, acute care, cardiac rehab, and outpatient ortho). He enrolled as a graduate student in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at UIC, full-time, and obtained a PhD in Physiology in 2000. Dr. Evans was a recipient of the Dean's Award in 1999 and 2000, and the University of Illinois Dissertation of the Year Award for Life Sciences in 2000 for his thesis "The Effects of a Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy-linked Mutation in α-Tropomyosin on Cardiac Function". He began teaching part-time at Midwestern University in 1999 and started full-time in January 2000 in the Physical Therapy Program. His teaching responsibilities have included Research, Cardiopulmonary Evaluation and Treatment, Clinical Conditions I and II, Pharmacology, and Scholarly Development in PT-I and II. In 2013, he received a joint appointment in Biomedical Sciences, College of Graduate Studies, and has mentored over 20 MS Biomedical Science students and many MA BMS students. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters related to topics such as sudden cardiac death in athletes, screening of athletes for cardiac hypertrophy, effects of exercise and diet on obesity and the gut microbiota, effects of high-intensity interval training heart transplant recipients, prone positioning for people with COVID-19, the use of GPS in monitoring community mobility in people recovering from a stroke, and the microbiota of an outpatient physical therapy clinic. In addition, he has published book chapters on the evaluation of the electrocardiogram in PT (Frownfelter & Dean, Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Physical Therapy, Evidence and Practice) and on the effect of exercise on the human gut microbiota in health and disease (Foundations of Osteopathic Medicine, 2026).