Casey Kerrigan, MD

Dr. Casey Kerrigan, founder of OESH Shoes, has performed 20 years of peer-reviewed published research on gait (walking and running) and the effect of footwear on the body, with both a medicine and engineering (former University of Virginia professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering) background, along with hands-on manufacturing experience.

She was the first female tenured Professor and Chair of a Department at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, chairing the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation there until she made the leap to enter the field of manufacturing.

While at Harvard (where she received her M.D.), Dr. Kerrigan discovered that high heeled shoes increase joint torques that are associated with the development and progression of knee osteoarthritis, a debilitating medical condition twice as common in women than in men that causes more physical disability than any other disease in the elderly. She blends advanced manufacturing techniques, lessons from physics, medicine, and wellness to make a unique and healthy difference. Her work has been heralded in such publications as the Lancet, Washington Post, New York Times, NBC News and other popular media and academic sources.