Sara MacDowell Biography
Dr. Sara MacDowell has many years of specialized clinical experience with patients who have vestibular and/or facial nerve disorders. She practices in a comprehensive neurotology clinic alongside audiologists and neurotologists. Her primary practice is an outpatient based vestibular therapy treatment center, but also consults at the acute care hospital for post-operative vestibular patients as well as dizzy patients admitted through the ER.
She is currently an adjunct professor at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and Franciscan University Department of Physical Therapy and is involved in instruction of the vestibular portions of the physical therapy curriculum. She also participates in instruction through the otolaryngology residency program to educate medical residents about vestibular rehabilitation. Additionally, she facilitates research through LSUHSC and Franciscan University Department of Physical Therapy with current research areas of activity levels in patients with vestibular dysfunction, the use of virtual reality in patients with vestibular dysfunction, telehealth, and normative data for this population.
She has been teaching vestibular rehabilitation in continuing education courses since 2011 and founded her own company, Advanced Neuro Therapy Education in 2019. She is active teaching in person and online courses as well as promoting resources and education through her social media @dizzydiagnostics.
Dr. MacDowell graduated with a doctorate in physical therapy from Washington University in St. Louis in 2008 and has since completed the competency certification in “Vestibular Rehabilitation” and “Vestibular Function Tests: Interpretation and Application to Rehabilitation.” She is in the 2024/2025 cohort for She has served as a board member of the APTA Vestibular Special Interest Group and has been featured on several podcasts through this organization. She recently served as the chairperson for the dissemination of the 2016 clinical practice guideline “Vestibular Rehabilitation for Peripheral Vestibular Hypofunction: An Evidence-Based Clinical Practice.”