Gail C. Grisetti aimed to teach her physical therapy students far more than the proper manipulations of body parts.
“She was a humanist who could see the bigger picture,” recalled Martha Walker, an associate professor emerita of rehabilitation sciences. “She wanted to treat the whole person in their environment and teach them how to move.”
Her approach resonated with Brittany Samulski, an assistant professor of rehabilitation sciences and a former student of Grisetti’s. “Gail was so great at teaching us not just the physical therapy piece but how to navigate a therapeutic relationship and build rapport with a patient,” Samulski said. “She was a huge mentor to me, both as a student and a junior faculty member.”
Grisetti, an associate professor emerita of physical therapy and athletic training who taught at Old Dominion University for more than 30 years, died in her home in Hampton on March 14. She was 76.
Her big-picture thinking extended beyond the University. Starting in the early 2000s, she partnered with Physicians for Peace to organize spring break trips with students to improve health care in the Dominican Republic.
“She really wanted to give to the world, and she made people around her want to give to the world, too,” Walker said. “Some of the students who went down there cite it as a life-changing experience.”
Samulski said it was “a huge reason” why she enrolled in Old Dominion’s doctoral program in physical therapy. During the 2010 trip, Samulski recalled, Grisetti treated amputees, some of whom didn’t speak English. “She could use body language and warmth to connect with someone she had never met in her life,” Samulski said. “She saw herself as a servant bringing health care to people who needed it.”
Grisetti was instrumental in launching an undergraduate program in physical therapy at Universidad Católica Santo Domingo, her obituary said. ODU students occasionally presented lectures to their counterparts. In turn, the physical therapy students from the Dominican Republic sometimes visited Old Dominion, attending classes and labs.
The ODU contingent also worked with a group known as Madres Tutelares, or Resource Mothers. The goal, Walker said, was to educate the women to help train teen and low-income mothers to evaluate their babies’ health.
Grisetti didn’t limit her Dominican Republic trips to spring break. She also visited to establish programs to help patients with artificial limbs learn how to walk, Walker said. In addition, she was among the first group of volunteers to go to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake to assist amputees there, her obituary said.
Grisetti, who taught at Old Dominion from 1986 until her retirement in 2019, had two sides, Samulski said. “She was very professional and no-nonsense, but at the same time she had this warmth about her. When she was talking to you, her entire attention was on you.”
Michele Nielsen, a graduate who now co-owns Virginia Beach Physical Therapy and Wellness, said, “I remember us sitting there talking after class. She would ask me, “‘How are you? How are you doing?’ She didn’t just want to know about school. She wanted to know about the whole individual.”
In the classroom, “she was always excited and shared that passion with us,” Nielsen said. “I always wanted to listen to her. She was just phenomenal.”
Grisetti’s honors included the ODU Provost’s Award for Leadership in International Education and Community Service Award and the Physicians for Peace Medical Diplomat Award.
She is survived by her husband, Dr. Abdul H. Jamaludeen, and his children, as well as many longtime friends. Interment was private. Donations in her memory can be made to Mission Gait.