Danielle is a physical therapist, running coach, and owner of Starting Line PT and Performance. Since graduating from Sacred Heart University where she earned both her Doctorate of Physical Therapy and Bachelor of Exercise Science she has worked to develop her skills through mentorships and courses in manual therapy, dry needling, strength and conditioning, running gait mechanics, pain science, running video analysis and the management of common injuries. Being a marathon runner and triathlete herself, Danielle enjoys being able to relate to endurance athletes that are experiencing pain while training because she has been in their shoes. While dealing with her own injuries, she wouldn’t take “just stop running” as an answer. It is her goal to get her clients back to consistent training as soon as possible by making modifications to their training.

Danielle has clinical experience working with a variety of populations ranging from pediatrics to older adults with neurological and musculoskeletal conditions. She is Level I North American Institute of Manual Therapy (NAIOMT) certified for the cervical and lumbar spine. Additionally, Danielle is full-body certified for Dry Needling from the Spinal Manipulation Institute to help supplement her manual therapy skills. In addition to her role as a Physical Therapist, Danielle is a USATF Running  and USAT Triathlon Coach to meet all of your performance needs.

Creating the treadmill studio branch to Starting Line was the last piece to the puzzle. Danielle wants to be able to offer a PT and performance hub for runners, triathletes, and active individuals where they can get stronger, run year-round, and receive physical therapy guidance when dealing with an injury.

Running didn’t always come easy to Danielle (it is still hard sometimes!). She only started seriously running in 2014 when she was convinced by co-workers to run her first half marathon. Seven months later she ran her first marathon, the Baltimore Marathon. It didn’t take long for her to get hooked. Despite completing 8 marathons, Danielle still gets those pre race jitters before each starting line. 

• Favorite Race: 2019 Boston Marathon, it was the marathon where I finally broke 4 hours.

• Least Favorite Race: 2016 Baystate Half Marathon...It was a beautiful race but I went into it with high expectations of a PR but in hindsight went in undertrained and hit a wall at mile 10.

• Running Affirmation: “Keep showing up”

• Starting Line I have my eye on: Sugarloaf Marathon and NYC Marathon.

• Instagram: @runfitdoc / @startingline207