Our Team
Holly Burt
Dr. Holly Burt, PT, DPT, OCS, is the founder and owner of State of the Art, a wellness clinic in Raleigh, North Carolina dedicated to helping people move well, feel strong, and live healthier lives. With more than 17 years of experience as a physical therapist, Holly has built a practice that bridges healthcare, fitness, recovery, and education to support the whole person, not just a diagnosis or injury.
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A Raleigh native, Holly earned her Bachelor of Science from Wake Forest University before receiving her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Columbia University, where she focused on orthopedic rehabilitation. She is an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS), a distinction held by a small percentage of physical therapists, and has completed extensive post-graduate training in orthopedic manual therapy, dry needling, vestibular rehabilitation, concussion management, pelvic health, and movement-based rehabilitation.
Throughout her career, Holly has worked with everyone from performing artists and dancers to endurance athletes and active adults. Her passion for movement and performance extends beyond the clinic. As a triathlete herself, she understands the challenges of balancing training, recovery, injury prevention, and everyday life. This perspective helps her connect with patients and clients at every stage of their wellness journey.
Holly founded State of the Art with a vision of creating something different from the traditional healthcare model. She believed that lasting health outcomes require collaboration between rehabilitation, fitness, nutrition, recovery, and other wellness professionals. Since founding State of the Art, she has grown the practice from a single-provider physical therapy clinic into a multidisciplinary performance and wellness center serving the Raleigh community. Today, State of the Art brings together physical therapists, massage therapists, Pilates instructors, personal trainers, nutrition professionals, and other specialists who work as a team to help clients achieve their goals.
Whether helping someone recover from injury, return to sport, improve performance, or simply move through life with greater confidence, Holly’s mission remains the same: to empower people with the tools, knowledge, and support they need to take an active role in their health and well-being.
Outside of work, Holly enjoys triathlon training, Pilates, horse nerding, singing in choir, and spending time with her two fluffy dogs. She remains committed to serving both her local and global communities through volunteer and charitable initiatives. A portion of every session with Holly is donated to Help One Now, an organization dedicated to empowering families and communities through sustainable support, education, and economic opportunity.
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Helen Bryant
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As a child, Helen grew up in Raleigh playing competitive soccer from a young age. Sidelined by multiple injuries and a concussion, she developed a keen interest in the mind-body relationship and decided to pursue a career helping others heal from injury. After graduating from Wake Forest University in 2016, she received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy degree from Emory University in May 2019. Since then, she has worked with elite athletes, pediatrics, pre and postpartum, and everything in between. She has a variety of certifications including dry needling, Redcord Neurac Level One, and is a certified Pilates instructor through Polestar. She moved back to Raleigh from London, UK where she worked at a world-renowned health club, treating a variety of patients and working closely with doctors who are leaders in their field.
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Helen uses a combination of manual therapy including cupping, dry needling, and soft tissue mobilization along with Pilates, GYROTONIC®, and muscle energy and fascial release techniques to help patients gain the strength and flexibility they need to perform at their best. Whether you need to return to high-level sport or just get back to your day-to-day life, she will focus on treating each client individually with a holistic and research-based approach.
Kelly Duffek
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Originally from South Florida, Kelly has lived in Raleigh since 2007. She graduated from Florida State University with her degree in Leisure and Recreation. Soon after graduating, Kelly realized she wanted a career that gave her a greater sense of purpose. Her joy in helping others is what led her to the field of Massage Therapy. Kelly graduated from Wake Technical Community College earning her massage therapy license in 2013 and has been working in the field ever since. It is her love! Kelly entered this field because she was disheartened by the amount of stress in society today. With strong listening skills (verbal as well as non-verbal), she strives to create a safe and comfortable space to allow clients to relax from society’s stresses in a judgment-free zone.
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As the physical aspect of Massage Therapy obviously cannot be ignored, it helps that Kelly has been an athlete her entire life. She played competitive soccer which ended in a Division I scholarship to FSU. Kelly has also always had an interest in anatomy and physiology. This interest has led her to truly experience the feel of the human body as remarkable. Kelly loves how every person is different which creates a new learning experience every day. She welcomes these challenges with an open heart and open mind.
Kelly strongly believes that connecting the body and mind relationship to achieve optimal awareness is the key to a healthy, balanced life. She loves what she does, which allows her to look forward to working with each and every person that comes across her table. A portion of each session with Kelly is donated to Transitions Life Care.
Allison Kirkman
Allison Kirkman began her Pilates journey nearly 20 years ago after searching for a workout focused on connecting the mind and body. Seeing the results for herself, she became a devoted practitioner of pure classical Pilates. In 2018, she trained with 3rd generation classical Pilates instructor, Lori Shipp, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, to become an instructor herself.
As an experienced teacher with a broad range of both fitness levels and injury knowledge, she enjoys meeting clients where they are and personalizing their lessons to reach their unique individual goals. She is well-versed and passionate about using classical Pilates apparatus with clients of all ages and body types.
She is a native North Carolinian. After receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she moved out of the state for several years before happily returning to Raleigh, NC, in 2012. She and her husband, Brad, of 14 years, enjoy great food, travel, and spending time with their Golden Retriever, Inch, and the rest of their extended family. A portion of sessions with Allison are donated to Canine Companions, a service dog industry.
Rachel May
Rachel's journey began in childhood, working out beside her mom to Jane Fonda tapes which planted the seeds for a lifelong love of fitness. Since 2006, she has been teaching a variety of classes including Pilates, yoga, strength training, TRX, and stretch, as well as offering personal training sessions tailored to meet clients where they are.
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Rachel is a Comprehensive Pilates Instructor through Balanced Body. She is also a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) 200 with Yoga Alliance. ​At the core of her approach is the belief that everything starts with breath. It’s the gateway to our core and the source of movement and stability. Rachel is especially passionate about helping people experience those “light bulb” moments when mind and body connect, and things just click.
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Whether you’re beginning your fitness journey or looking to deepen your existing practice, Rachel loves building a strong foundation together with her clients.
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Outside of teaching, Rachel loves being outdoors and some of her hobbies include paddle boarding, hiking, and walking along Raleigh's greenways. She is also a musician and plays the violin. Rachel loves hanging with friends and playing board games and card games so challenge her anytime.
David Lopez
Born and raised in Santa Barbara, CA, David’s love for football and baseball started at the early age of ten. His passion for both sports continued as a college athlete at Sanoma State University while he majored in Kinesiology. After college, he continued his professional baseball and football career in Arizona, Spain, and Colorado.
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During the latter part of his career, he turned his focus to functional training. It was his love for sports, fitness, and the desire to help others that fueled this transition. After living in Colorado for three years, he made his way to NC where he started his own training business. And in 2018, he became the fitness coordinator for Duke Faculty Club.
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His passion for fitness, athletics, and competition continues to fuel his enthusiasm and desire to help others with their health and fitness goals — with an emphasis on nutrition, mobility, strength and endurance training. A portion of each session with David is donated to The Boys and Girls Club of America which nourished and sparked his passion for sports.
Kaili Warnock
Kaili (pronounced Kay-lee) is a pelvic health physical therapist and obtained her doctorate in 2018 from Campbell University. She completed her pelvic health training through The Herman & Wallace Institute and has been focusing on the treatment of women with pelvic floor dysfunction for the last 3 years. Kaili developed a passion for treating pelvic floor dysfunction after learning more about how common it is for women to suffer from pelvic pain and incontinence.
During her career path, she discovered the presence of fear and shame associated with sharing these intimate details with another person. Kaili strives to make her treatment room a safe space for sharing and developing a plan to resolve her patient’s symptoms. Some of these symptoms include incontinence, pelvic pain, constipation, pelvic heaviness, painful intercourse, and core weakness/diastasis recti. Kaili takes a communicative, collaborative, and hands-on approach to treatment after a deep dive into each patient’s symptoms and unique lifestyle for personalized treatment. She utilizes a combination of manual therapy, exercise, breathing techniques, and calming methods to regulate the nervous system to help each client reach her goals. Whether it is jumping on a trampoline without leaking or enjoying pain-free sex, pelvic floor therapy can help each patient on her path to recovery.
Other common pelvic floor weakness complaints Kaili loves to treat include returning to HITT postpartum without leaking, increasing core strength, and eliminating heaviness in the pelvic floor with impact activities (i.e. tennis, running). Outside of work Kaili enjoys outdoor activities, spending time with friends, salsa dancing, and going on adventures with her Goldendoodle, Ellie. A portion of each session with Kaili is donated to The Women’s Center in Raleigh which helps care for those who cannot care for themselves.
Tiffany Ingersoll
Tiffany Ingersoll has been teaching movement in the Raleigh area since 2008. She is a National Pilates Certified Teacher trained by Balanced Body. Additionally, Tiffany is an experienced certified yoga teacher with hundreds of hours of training and teaching under her belt. She is certified to teach Hatha yoga, hot yoga, Embodied Yoga, Chair Yoga, Gentle yoga and Restorative yoga. She is also a certified Pre/Postnatal Corrective Exercise Specialist and a Breath and fascial release educator.
Tiffany is an educator at heart, so her approach is to help each student understand the layers of patterns they have collected in their bodies and which patterns are throwing their body off balance, causing pain and/or dysfunction. Then Tiffany helps students unwind, repattern and re-integrate to the greater body systems.
Tiffany is particularly passionate about working with the Prenatal and Postnatal community as she felt a lack of movement support during her time pregnant and postpartum. She also felt a huge lack of information to pregnant and postpartum women. Tiffany works to educate the prenatal community, one woan at a time if necessary, on all they can do to prepare for labor and delivery. It is one of the most athletic experiences in a woman's life. She also coaches women to advocate for themselves during medical visits and labor.
Postpartum women often feel forgotten as the focus turns to the child. Tiffany works with women as soon as two weeks postpartum, six weeks if a C-section, to support them as they recover from labor and delivery. Taking care of a newborn is extremely hard on a woman's body and mental health, but it doesn't need to be. Tiffany feels strongly that movement and community help women feel better in their bodies and minimize postpartum depression.
Tiffany also focuses her work are those recovering from surgery or injury of any kind. Tiffany uses breath, movement and mindfulness to help her students reconnect and integrate the body to work together fluidly. To help with this, she loves to collaborate with other health professionals to better support her students to reintegrate all the pieces to work together as a balanced system.
Tiffany is an educator and movement/body nerd at heart. While she has always had this in her, in 2010 when her little sister broke her neck she became even more driven towards therapeutic and rehab movement. Tiffany has spent time working with spinal cord injuries, joint replacements, chronic pain, Pelvic Floor dysfunction, and students looking for a better quality of life. She is always studying and working to learn more about how the human body was designed to work. Above all she believes her students are her best teachers.
When Tiffany is not working, she is adventuring outdoors or traveling with her family. She also loves making things with her hands and going on long walks!
Kim White
Kim was born and raised just outside of Burlington Vermont where she spent most of her time playing sports and being outside with her two brothers. This, along with having a mother who was a registered nurse, naturally made her interested in sports medicine. Kim received her Bachelor’s Degree in Athletic Training from Lynchburg College in 2011. She continued her education at Lynchburg College completing her Doctorate of Physical Therapy in 2014. She started her career in Northern Virginia, and relocated to the Raleigh area about six years ago.
Since graduation, Kim’s experience in physical therapy is primarily in sports medicine; having treated athletes at every level; including professional athletes, to high school, to the weekend warrior. As a Board-Certified Orthopedic Specialist, she also has experience treating a wide range of orthopedic conditions, including, but not limited to: post surgical joints, neck and back pain and SI joint dysfunction. She also specializes in concussion management and is a certified dry needling provider through Myopain Seminars, which can be incorporated within patient care. Recently she has taken several levels of the pelvic floor series from Herman and Wallace and beginning to work with pregnant and postpartum females dealing with a variety of orthopedic issues.
In her spare time, Kim enjoys fitness, and spending time with her husband Robby and their black lab Carter. You can also see her cheering on the University of Michigan! A portion of Kim’s proceeds at SoTA are given to Saving Grace where she adopted her puppy, Carter.​
Darlene Latshaw
​Whenever Darlene is asked about her career as a Massage Therapist, she explains that she is every bit as passionate about her job now as when she started many years ago! Darlene took a path slightly less traveled and began her career in 1998 working with horses and Equestrians. Since that time, Darlene's work has expanded considerably and now includes athletes, both professionals and weekend warriors, from a plethora of sports.
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Darlene has been a volunteer firefighter / EMT-B for 17 years and is the Medical Officer for her Dept. She has been a horse owner and avid equestrian since childhood. Sports and Medical Massage are Darlene's specialties and is passionate about helping clients prevent injuries, as well as recover from existing ones, so they can continue enjoying the activities they love!
Darlene holds a Massage License in her home state of Pennsylvania, as well as the State of North Carolina, and has completed specialized training in a number of massage modalities. She is a certified, nutrition-based Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in NYC. Darlene is also a Certified Magnawave Practitioner and would be happy to answer questions about the health benefits of pulsed electromagnetic field energy.
Catherine Appert
Catherine (Cathy) Appert, PT, DPT is a physical therapist with 18 years of clinical experience and a former competitive swimmer who understands high performing individuals and how to build durable, efficient, and resilient bodies before pain forces them to stop.
Cathy has spent the majority of her career at WakeMed, treating patients with complex neurological and orthopedic injuries. This environment shaped her approach early; teaching her how motor control, the nervous system, and movement quality drive long-term performance more than isolated strength or flexibility ever will. Her work is grounded in a simple truth many people have never been told: it starts with your brain.
As a competitive athlete, she understands the culture of training, load, recovery, and the constant pressure to perform. Her passion is to help professionals and active individuals stay ahead of injuries, reclaim efficient movement patterns, and keep doing the things they love at a high level.
At SoTA, Cathy focuses on preemptive care: developing movement literacy, improving neuromuscular efficiency, and helping athletes and active adults build and maintain bodies that hold up under volume and stress, not just for today but for the long-run.
Her goal is simple: protect capacity, extend careers, and keep you in the game of sport and life.
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Erin Falls
Erin Falls, MS, RD, LDN, E-RYT is a registered dietitian, yoga instructor, and founder of Planks & Pizza, a private nutrition counseling and yoga practice based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has been practicing as a dietitian since 2014 and brings more than a decade of experience helping individuals improve their health through practical, sustainable lifestyle changes. Erin also has over three years of outpatient clinical experience at Duke Health in Raleigh, where she has worked with patients in cardiac rehabilitation, diabetes care, and general medical nutrition therapy.
Erin specializes in working with active adults, athletes, women’s health clients, busy professionals, and individuals seeking support with weight management, intuitive eating, diabetes, and heart health. Her counseling approach focuses on helping clients set specific, measurable, and realistic goals supported by up-to-date, evidence-based nutrition information. She takes a whole-person approach to care, emphasizing the connection between nutrition, movement, mindset, and daily habits.
In addition to her nutrition work, Erin is an experienced yoga instructor with over 2,000 hours of teaching experience and holds an E-RYT 200 certification. She teaches a challenging flow-style class that blends mobility, flexibility, strength, and balance, while also offering private sessions tailored to individual goals. Erin currently teaches classes at SoTA and North Hills Club in Raleigh, where she works with clients seeking to improve movement quality, physical resilience, and overall wellness.​
Erin received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from UNC Chapel Hill and her Master of Science in Nutrition from Winthrop University. Originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she now lives and works in Raleigh. Outside of work, she enjoys yoga, Pilates, challenging hikes, golf, pickleball, and cheering for her favorite teams—the Carolina Panthers, UNC Tar Heels (Go Heels!), and Carolina Hurricanes. She loves cooking, and her latest feat is mastering her garden. Erin also has a mischievous Aussiedoodle named Mr. Wilson who keeps life fun and lively.​
Blair Hobble
Blair Hobble, PT, DPT, CBIS is a vestibular physical therapist with more than 13 years of experience helping people with dizziness, vertigo, balance problems, and concussion-related symptoms. She specializes in treating both inner ear and neurologic causes of dizziness, including more complex cases that don’t always have clear or straightforward answers.
She received her clinical doctorate from Duke University and has spent her career in neurorehabilitation. As a clinical specialist at WakeMed Rehab Hospital, Blair has led system-level efforts to standardize screening and treatment for vestibular dysfunction in trauma and fall populations.
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Blair’s interest in the impact of dizziness began in middle school, after watching her father - a former collegiate athlete and lifelong sports enthusiast - become temporarily debilitated by sudden, severe dizziness. That experience shaped her understanding of just how disruptive vestibular disorders can be, even for the strongest and most capable individuals. It set her on a career path focused on uncovering the often invisible, frustrating, and isolating symptoms of vestibular impairment, with the goal of restoring independence, confidence, and quality of life.
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What brought Blair to SOTA? A pattern she couldn’t ignore. Time and again, patients shared that dizziness and balance impairments had been affecting their lives for years before a major fall ultimately led to their hospitalization. As she worked to build a stronger safety net for patients transitioning back into the community, she also recognized a broader gap in care: too few vestibular specialists and long waitlists delaying treatment for many patients.
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In addition to clinical practice, Blair contributes to the field through national and state conference presentations, mentorship of DPT students and colleagues, and publications focused on rehabilitation in complex patient populations.
When she’s not immersed in vestibular rehab, Blair is at home with her husband and two kids, who ensure life is always in motion and rarely perfectly balanced.
Veronica McMullan
Veronica McMullan has been a massage therapist for over fifteen years, and is a graduate of The Healing Arts Massage School here in Raleigh. She taught both pregnancy and table Thai techniques, and specializes in relaxation, lymphatics, pregnancy, and postpartum work.
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Originally from Michigan, she moved around from Mississippi to Florida, earning her Masters in Conflict Resolution from Nova Southeastern in Sunrise Florida, before calling the Triangle her home. After the move, she pivoted from helping resolve and mediate conflicts to helping people with their wellness; reducing their stress and adding relaxation.
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Her massage school education focused on teaching lymphatic massage first to their students before other modalities. Veronica fell in love with the benefits of both lymphatic massage and pregnancy massage while in school, and graduated from The Healing Arts & Massage School in 2010. She decided to open her own practice, while teaching and acting as an administrator.
Focusing on relaxation, pregnancy, and postpartum work gave her the opportunity to act as massage therapist in a birthing center in Cary, and to travel to Thailand, completing her Northern Style Thai Massage training in Chiangmai. She then transitioned to a spa setting in Cary, spending nearly ten years there before joining the SoTA team. Next, she intends to continue with that love of learning, and earn her Certified Lymphedema Therapist certificate in 2026.
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Veronica shares her Raleigh home with her husband, children, dog, and family library overflowing with boardgames and books.