Our Staff

Pany Nazari, PT, DPT, BCB-PMD, PRPC

Founder and CEO of PhysioWellnessVA, Dr. Pany Nazari received her BS degree in 1994 from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and her doctorate degree in 2016 from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. For the first decade of her career she focused on mastering the assessment and treatment of a variety of orthopedic issues, with a focus on the spine, sacro-iliac joint, and pelvis. Since 2005, Pany has dedicated her educational and clinical concentration on pelvic floor rehabilitation. Her passion is to use various forms of biofeedback in conjunction with manual therapy along with a strong emphasis on patient education to facilitate optimal function for individuals. She is a fellow and has been board certified in the use of Biofeedback for Pelvic Muscle Disorders since 2005.

Pany truly believes that knowledge is power; she has a strong focus on education and increasing awareness of the importance of pelvic health among the community, physicians and other practitioners. She is also continuously expanding her own knowledge by attending various conferences, serving as a member of the International Pelvic Pain Society and National Vulvodynia Association, and was named a fellow by the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health in 2022. She is direct access certified in the state of Virginia.

Dr. Nazari established a tremendously well respected pelvic rehab program at her local hospital from the ground up, where she worked for 18 years. In 2017, Dr. Nazari created PhysioWellnessVA to bring her specialization and expertise to a more intimate setting. Over her 30-year tenure, she has served thousands of patients in the Northern Virginia area.

Dawn Marrapodi, MPT, CLT-LANA

Dawn Marrapodi is a physical therapist based in Northern Virginia. She has a passion for treating pregnant and postpartum patients and trying to improve health literacy regarding to the pelvic floor.

After the birth of her children, Dawn learned she needed pelvic floor therapy. Her own positive experience led her to expand her practice to include pelvic health therapy in 2018. She has completed training through the Herman and Wallace Institute to treat all types of pelvic health conditions.

Dawn graduated from Quinnipiac University in 2005, earning a master’s degree in physical therapy. After working in hospital-based rehabilitation in Brooklyn, NY, and orthopedic-based occupational medicine in New Orleans, LA, she settled in the Northern Virginia area with a desire to serve patients with lymphedema. In 2008, she became a Certified Lymphedema Therapist, through the Academy of Lymphatic Studies; in 2009 she received her accreditation through the Lymphology Association of North America (LANA). Since 2008, she has dedicated her practice to treating patients with primary and secondary lymphedema, in addition to a strong focus on oncology rehabilitation, particularly from breast cancer-related treatments.

There can be a significant overlap between the pelvic health and oncology rehabilitation worlds, and Dawn has tried to bring awareness to her oncology patients about the effects of their treatments on the pelvic floor, including surgeries, radiation, and hormonal therapies. Similarly, patients undergoing treatment for prostate, gynecological, and colorectal cancers are at risk for lymphedema.

In her spare time Dawn enjoys exercising, spending time with her husband and her two children, and trying to keep their rescue dog from destroying everything in sight.

Vaishali Sikotra, MPT, PRPC

Vaishali received her Master’s in Physical Therapy from Andrews University in 2000 and has worked in multiple settings across multiple states before settling here in Northern Virginia in 2005. Having worked with diagnosis ranging from neurological, orthopedics and vestibular she has found her true passion working with pelvic health patients since 2010.

To further her skills, she obtained certification in Trigger Point Dry Needling and received her Pelvic Rehabilitation Practitioner Certification in 2020 from Hermann and Wallace Institute. In addition, Vaishali has taken numerous continuing education courses in varied treatment approaches. She believes in treating patients with a manual therapy approach, combined with exercises to support these specialized techniques. Most importantly, she uses evidence based approaches with focus on treating the patients “as a whole” by assessing posture, body dynamics and movement patterns.

In her free time, Vaishali enjoys spending time with her children, hiking, being in the great outdoors and doing yoga.