Dr. Katie de Luca is an Associate Professor at CQUniversity (Brisbane Campus), in Queensland Australia.

Her research interests focus on the epidemiology and management of musculoskeletal conditions, with expertise in older adults. Katie has received competitive research funding in excess of $5.1M. She leads the industry funded (Australian Chiropractors Association), internationally collaborative, 12 month longitudinal study on BAck Complaints in the Elderly:Chiropractic - Australia. Her recent Global Burden of Disease 2021 low back pain estimates were published in the Lancet Rheumatology. This publication alone has more than 160 news mentions and 800 social media mentions globally, and featured nationally across print, TV (Channel 7 news; Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide) and radio, where Katie was interviewed by ABC Far North Queensland. Internationally, news items featured in National Geographic Indonesia, as well as in China, the US, the UK, India, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong and South Korea, just to name a few. Outstandingly, the coverage for this research is estimated to have reached 3 million Australians and 40 million people globally.

Katie has more than 65 peer-reviewed journal publications, and includes publications in prestigious journals such as Lancet Rheumatology, Arthritis Care Res, Osteoarthritis Cartilage, Spine J, JOSPT and BMC Geriatrics. Her current h-index is 21, and has nearly ~2,000 citations of her publications. She has given >50 national and international conference presentations, which includes many invited keynote presentations on back pain in older adults, women's health conditions and sports chiropractic.

Katie is Chair of the World Federation of Chiropractic, Disability and Rehabilitation Committee and sits as a member on WHO World Rehabilitation Alliance. She is on the editorial board of Chiropractic and Manual Therapies and is the section editor for the JMPT Women's Health section. 

She convenes and teaches into the units Advanced Clinical Development, Social Perspectives of Health and Research Literacy. She also leads the supervision of graduate research projects in the 1st and 2nd year Masters of Chiropractic program.