Rate My Professor Susan Zacharia

Susan Zacharia is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she has served in term faculty roles since January 2017, promoted to Associate Professor in July 2022. She serves as Program Director for the university's Certificate in Health Behavior Coaching, a graduate program focused on training health professionals in client-centered behavior change strategies. Zacharia holds a Ph.D. in Health Promotion (2015) and an M.S. in Health Promotion (2010), both from the University of Oklahoma, as well as an M.S. in Bioinformatics (2005) from Bharathidasan University, India. Her prior academic appointments include Assistant Professor of Health Science at Minnesota State University, Mankato (2015-2016), and graduate teaching/research assistantships at the University of Oklahoma (2008-2015).

Zacharia's research specializes in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for managing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular conditions and arthritis, comprehensive lifestyle interventions to boost physical activity and mitigate disease risk, and interventions to improve balance and functional performance in middle-aged and older adults for fall prevention and healthy aging. Notable publications are "Effects of a Yoga Intervention on Adults with Lower Limb Osteoarthritis: a Randomized Controlled Trial" (2018, American Journal of Health Studies), "Effects of an 8-week Tai Chi exercise program on physical functional performance in middle-aged women" (2013, Journal of Applied Gerontology), and "Internet-based physical activity interventions at the worksite: A systematic review" (2013, American Journal of Health Studies). A Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) since 2016, she has earned the University of Oklahoma's Doctoral Dissertation Research Award (2015) and various travel grants for national conferences. At VCU, she teaches courses on substance abuse, exercise psychology, disease trends, and health behavior change. Zacharia maintains affiliations with the Society for Public Health Education, American Public Health Association, and American College of Sports Medicine, and recently secured a VCU Catalyst Award for her project on cultural line dancing for healthy aging in older African Americans (2022-2023).