Go, you got your light.
Okay, cool.
Hi, my name is Bill Boisenalt.
On behalf of the Academy of
Orthopedic Physical Therapy,
I want to welcome you and
thank you for joining us as
we continue our time travel
back through the 50 years of the Academy.
1974,
the orthopedic section was officially
approved by the APTA.
So this being 2024 marks a
big birthday for the Academy,
its 50th year.
The Academy has undertaken a
number of activities to
celebrate the past, honor the past,
including developing a
timeline of historical events.
And the purpose of these
conversations is to
highlight events that
occurred that not only
impacted the Academy itself,
but also the profession,
so on a wider basis.
And the purpose of these
couch conversations is to
look at those events that, again,
shaped the Academy,
shaped the profession,
And we're going to do so
through the eyes of three
individuals who played key
roles in the formative
years of the Academy and
also blazed the trail for
women to assume leadership
roles within the Academy.
So it's my pleasure,
my honor to introduce Babette Sanders,
Jan Richardson, and Nancy White.
Babette, amongst other things,
chaired the Illinois
Orthopedic Study Group in late 1970s.
This was an initiative
undertaken by the section
to help reach the grassroots.
Babette also served as
treasurer from 1977 to 1981.
Jen Richardson,
Jen began her role within
the section slash academy
as program committee,
which was really the
education committee for the
section back then.
So she served in this role
from 1982 to 86.
She became president-elect in 1987,
and then served two terms
as president through 1992.
And part of her role as
section president was to
serve as the section
delegate to APD's House of Delegates,
again, during her years as president.
And last but not least, Nancy White.
Nancy began her role within
the academy serving on the
practice committee in 87, 88,
then moved to the education
committee where she served
as co-chair for five years.
And then from 1995 to 2001
served as vice president of the academy.
Part of her role as VP was
to serve as the awards
committee chair during her
term as vice president.
So what makes this
conversation special for me
personally is that I had
the privilege of serving
under and serving with
three of you over the years.
And I can't thank you enough
for carving time out of
your busy lives of
vacations and work lives to
do this conversation today.
So first question, and Babette,
we'll start with you since
you have seniority amongst the group.
In the early days,
the section leadership was
almost entirely made up of men.
So how did you get involved
in this section and who
mentored you in the realm
of assuming leadership
positions within this section?
Thanks, Bill.
I was reflecting about that
a lot as I was thinking
about this discussion.
And I really,
when I think about how far
back I go in terms of my
involvement with the section,
it really was,
I think I was probably one of the
very early women, as you say.
And I think that I can go
back and say to the people
who were my faculty when I
was in PT school,
who were all involved in APTA,
I remember sitting at some
ortho section meeting where
they were looking for
candidates or people willing to serve.
And somebody kind of gave me
the elbow and said, you could do that.
And I was, I guess,
naive enough at that point to say, oh,
sure, no problem.
I'd be happy to do that.
And I think that's kind of
how a lot of us got
involved is the elbow in
the ribs sitting at a
meeting that somebody planted the seed.
And so I did agree to run
for treasurer and served in
that role for a number of
years and really grateful
for that opportunity
because when I think of some of the
leaders in the field that I
got to know through the
orthopedic section.
Stanley Paris, Sandy Burkhart,
who's no longer with us, Dick Earhart,
Jim Gould.
I'm privileged to say that I
served and worked with some
of those individuals.
I'm not sure at that stage
that I really thought as
much about the fact that I
was a woman in a man's world.
I think somehow that matured.
I think I saw myself as a young PT,
what we now call emerging leader,
looking to make my path in
the association.
I think it's through those
very early experiences that I really
learned to, what's the right word,
embrace the fact that I was
a woman charting a path in
leadership within the association.
And the board,
the treasurer's role at that point,
I remember balancing the checkbook.
I mean, when I think about that now,
we didn't have staff.
We all did our own work.
I can remember board
meetings in somebody's hotel room.
We didn't have other rooms.
But out of those early meetings,
some really wonderful
concepts that have carried
the Ortho Academy now,
but ABTA and the profession
forward very much, so.
Very good.
So you went to a meeting and
somebody elbowed you.
I think probably we all
experienced that along the way.
Jan, how about you?
Well, similar to Babette,
it was being in the right
place at the right time.
And from a mentor perspective,
I was very fortunate after
graduating from University
of Pennsylvania physical
therapy program to take my
first position as a
physical therapist with Bob Richardson.
who at that time had been
president of the
Pennsylvania chapter and
was very involved with the
American Physical Therapy
Association on the board
and instilled in all of the
staff that we had an
obligation to give back to
the profession and serve
and be very diligent about
that because we had gleaned
from those in our past
And now we needed to
contribute to the present
and move on to mentor for the future.
So I happened to be at a
seminar and at that time
speakers still had side projectors.
And I was sitting in the
orthopedic section room at
the back of the room.
The chairman of the program
committee came up to me and said,
one of their members had
become ill and she had to
go somewhere else would I
consider turning the lights
off and on for the speaker
as the speaker was ready to
do their presentation and
then afterward to take
questions and I said I
would be glad to do that so
during that two-hour
presentation I worked the
lights back and forth and afterward
she came up to me and said,
would you like to be on the
program committee?
So it was, again,
being in the right place at
the right time.
From a mentor perspective,
having been on the program committee,
I had the opportunity to
meet Carolyn Wadsworth,
who was the first ortho
section female president.
and became very engaged with
the section from that perspective,
as well as, again,
being mentored in what
leadership was all about,
contribution was all about,
and team building was all
about from Bob Richardson.
So, Jan, you passed the light switch test.
I did.
And the slide carousel test, probably.
Yes, that as well, yes.
Nancy, how about you?
um so it's fun to to think
back on all these times so
my first clinical uh
position was in the chicago
area in lake forest and I
was actually in babette's
study group and a lot of
there was a lot of energy
around manual therapy and
orthopedics and all of that
so I was part of that when
sandy would come and talk
to us and dicker her would
come it was it was a lot of fun and my
and one of my work
colleagues were in the
Northwestern manual therapy
program as well.
So all we did was go around
the country and take manual
therapy courses in our vacation time.
And I was at a class once
and Helen Price was also
one of my roommates who was
involved early and we were
in some manual therapy
class and Carolyn Wadsworth
was in the class.
And so someone said, oh,
Carolyn's looking for women
to become involved with
orthopedic section because
she was the president.
And so we talked to her and somehow
how I got connected.
And she gave my name to Bob Duesinger,
who was coming in as the president.
And I got involved in some,
I guess that was a practice
committee and we were doing this little,
you know,
trying to figure out what the
role of PTAs were.
And there were people who
had very definite opinions
and it sort of opened the
doors to some of that.
But I got involved early on
and I never stopped until I
left to go to work for APTA.
It was just,
it was a wonderful group of colleagues.
But I got to know very quickly
Jan and Annette who were
involved with the program committee.
And it was so clinical and
it was so structured and it
was very sort of down my alley.
And so I got involved with
that and really loved that.
And then started working
with Bill when he was the
president and I was the vice president.
not worked along the way.
So just lots of people who
have stayed with the section,
stayed involved,
that touched me along the way.
But I appreciate those early
days in Chicago with the
Northwestern program and
all of the ways that they
were able to influence me.
So thank you all.
Good stories, neat stories.
You know, as women in
primarily a male-dominated organization.
Did you face any bias or
pushback as you tried to
get involved during your
leadership roles?
Nancy,
maybe I'll start with you and we'll
work back.
You'll start with me?
Okay.
You know,
I was sort of clueless about
those things.
I might have had it, but not noticed it.
But I, you know,
I do think that with organizations, it's,
you know, friendships form,
and sometimes they're
perceived as being cliques.
And sometimes it's just a
comfort level of having those groups.
But there was a lot of,
probably even more than male, female,
a lot of sort of, you know,
panache and cachet to the
international connections
and people who knew Le
Grimsby and the people who
knew the New Zealanders.
And there was these sort of
groups there that were
perceived sometimes to be
sort of exclusive because
of who they were.
And they were predominantly male.
And I think it was visible.
I don't know how that is now, but I
i just you know sort of
found a place that I felt
like I fit and showed up
and did my work and made
lots of friends that way
and and never felt that I
was being pushed aside so
yeah jen how about you uh I
agree with nancy at that
time we didn't really think
of who was male and who was
female we thought about who
was on the team
And what contributions did
those people bring to the team?
And there were some people
who had skill sets as visionaries.
There were others who were
looking at the financial
aspects and the stability of the section.
And then there were those
who could implement plans
of care and others who
could then assess the outcome.
So all of us brought
something to the table.
We functioned more
collaboratively than we did
competitively with one another.
And as Nancy mentioned,
we all became best friends
on the board as we went
forward to advance at that
time what the goals and the
programs and the membership
benefits were for the section.
Beth?
Yeah, I would have to agree.
I go back again to what I
said a little bit before.
Was it because I was young
and almost too naive to
recognize what was happening?
And that is certainly a possibility.
I was young in age,
fairly new as a graduate.
I mean, certainly under eight years,
I guess, at that point.
And so it may have been
going on all around me,
and I just was like clueless.
And I'm willing to say that
now because now I'll pick it up like,
where'd that come from?
Like, who's saying that?
Why are they saying that?
That's wrong.
Whereas then I'm not sure I
would have done that or I
was in so much awe of some
of the leaders at the time.
They were the people who
wrote my textbooks.
They were the people who
were teaching the courses I was taking.
that perhaps the awe and the
naivety at that point
didn't help me see the
forest through the trees.
Yeah,
there certainly is a different level
of awareness these days
compared to decades ago.
You know,
part of the purpose of these
conversations is to look at
some of the events and
challenges the section was
facing back in the formative years.
And I'll start with you in
terms of your time on the
board in particular,
what were the major challenges?
What were the major priorities?
You know, I know back in the late 70s,
early 80s,
our priority was to kind of get
the internal house in shape, you know,
policies, procedures, and bylaws, and
developing a strong
relationship with APTA.
So what were the major
issues driving activities
back in your term as treasurer?
I would agree,
getting our internal house in order.
As you said,
we were still relatively young
as a section.
And so I think at the point
that I was on the board,
we had sort of emerged out of our infancy
but hadn't quite gotten to
adolescence yet.
So we were trying to figure
out what we really wanted
to be when we grew up as a
section and how that was going to happen.
But I think that two of the
things that I remember with
people who are still
leaders is talking about specialization.
We didn't necessarily call it that,
but that's what it was.
And the seeds towards
getting specialization as a
reality started in the
orthopedic section at that point.
Establishing the journal, JOSPT,
started in a board meeting
where somebody said,
we need to move beyond some
newslettery kind of thing
if we really want to promote
if we really want to promote having,
I'm sorry, if you give me a minute,
I'll just let it go.
This is why we have editing.
Okay.
One more.
Okay.
Sorry.
They really want you.
Okay.
Whatever it is can wait
because whoever really
needs to reach me knows to
call my cell phone, not the house phone.
So in any case, all right.
Where was I?
The newsletter journal.
Right.
We moved as a seed idea at
one of our board meetings.
I can remember distinctly
who made the comments that said,
we need to move beyond.
If we want to promote research,
in orthopedic physical therapy,
we need to have a place
where people can publish their research.
And so the seeds for the
development of the journal
came out of those early board meetings.
So between when I think now
the impact of JOSPT
on the profession is enormous.
When I think now about specialization,
not just in orthopedics,
but in a variety of
clinical practice areas, it's enormous.
And I take pride in the fact
that I was part of those
very early discussions.
Yeah.
Jen, how about you?
Not only just your terms as president,
but when you started on the
program committee,
what were the big
priorities and challenges at that time?
As I think back,
there were three major
challenges that we ran into.
A minor one being who was
going to work the lights as
a program committee,
but we already found that volunteer.
So I'll talk more about my
two terms as president
because within the very
first week of having been elected,
I received a call from the
American Board of Physical
Therapy Specialists, the ABPTS,
telling me that we had
petitioned for the
examination in orthopedics
and our time was running out.
basically 60 days to finish
the exam to get to them so
that they could take a look
at it in september at their
meeting and um our item
writing group had resigned
so we didn't have anyone at the time
I reached out to Joan McCulloch,
Rick Ritter,
and Susan Stralka and asked
them if they would consider
being the new members with
a very short timeframe of
about 45 to 60 days.
We brought them in to a
central location for a week's worth,
and they did yeoman work on that item
the items for the
examination for the OCS and
completed that task,
which had lingered for
years and years because at
that time was the thought
that there was going to be
a practical component to
the written component.
We owe them a great debt to
have been able to get that
done within that time period,
because otherwise we were
going to have to start the
whole process over and go
back to the position process.
So they came through and did
an excellent job with that.
The other challenge was
really looking at our
financial stability.
We were the largest
component of the APTA at that time,
component being both
sections and chapters.
We did have thousands of
members at that time, but we were totally,
for the most part,
reliant on dues revenue for
our operating budget.
So we wanted to look at how
we were going to get beyond
that and start to generate
and plan for non dues revenue.
And we were very fortunate
to not only do that to the
tune of when I took the presidency,
our operating budget was
about annually was about $220,000.
And when I left the presidency in 1992,
It was 1.3 million plus.
So the board was very
successful in doing that.
And one of the ways that we
did that was by looking at
special interest groups or
what we called SIGs.
There was more to the
orthopedic section than
just manual therapy.
And there were people who
were interested in other
sub specialty areas of orthopedics.
The first SIGs were the
occupational health SIG.
Then we had foot and ankle.
We had the performing arts SIG.
We had pain management.
And in 1992, I believe,
the idea for animal
physical therapy started that SIG.
So we were able to expand
beyond the initial focus of
what the orthopedic
section was,
which was at that time
predominantly mobilization
and manual therapy to other
specialty areas that were
inclusive of MSK as well as
pain management and other
arenas that physical
therapists practiced in.
And then lastly,
the last challenge that we
really had to take
charge of, if you will,
was the whole area of
practice restriction and
practice protection.
We were doing manual therapy,
we were doing mobilization,
we were doing manipulation,
but our state practice acts
didn't reflect that.
And so we became in adversarial
conversations with the
chiropractors across the
country who wanted to be
not only restrictive about manipulation,
but also to be able to say
that they were doing
physical therapy because
physical therapy really was
not a protective term at that time.
So we worked for years on
being able to get the
chapters or talk to the
chapters about changing
their state practice acts
so that the protection of
our practice was actually
spelled out in those
practice acts from state to state.
Yeah.
Jan,
you mentioned the financial growth of
the section and Babette
talking about there was no
office and no office staff
and you were involved.
Jan,
it was during your tenure that the
section started putting
away money to purchase land
and build a building in La Crosse.
at a time when I'm not sure
there was any other
component or APTA that
owned their own building.
So can you describe a little
bit of that background
information related to that?
Well,
after we started to develop programs
that were revenue
generating and were not
reliant on membership dues,
we started really banking a
lot of the money into
savings with the intent
that we were going to purchase land
And then we were going to
build a building because
rent was basically not as
fiscally beneficial to us
as owning our own land,
owning our own building.
And we had John Wadsworth
and Bob Burroughs who were
very financially astute too,
who helped us grow those non-dues revenue
to the level that we could actually go out,
start searching for land in
the La Crosse area,
and then think about
actually building a building.
It became very important to
us once we actually had
that up and running because
then we actually
subcontracted our services
in other areas to other sections.
So that additionally brought
in non-jews revenue,
not just from the
postbaccalaureate
educational programs that we were doing,
such as, by that time,
the review course for the
OCSE examination,
but also working at the
royalties from the journal,
And then looking at the
subcontracting of
administrative and
managerial services for the
smaller sections that were
having difficulty with the
ability to purchase, if you will,
expertise,
both for things such as their newsletter,
as well as just event
planning and meeting
planning on their behalf.
Very good.
Nancy, how about you?
Looking at your years as
vice president and also as
education committee co-chair,
what were the big events,
major challenges facing the
section at that time?
So two things,
and I love what Babette and
Jan have mentioned,
and that was sort of on my list as well.
But I think just to add to that,
that when I look back on that time,
there was so much growth
going on in the section.
There was a growth in membership and
broader interest as Jan
mentions with the special interest group,
but also growth and revenue
and the importance of
strong leadership to manage
that growth wisely.
And I think that the
purchase of the building,
as well as the development
of infrastructure for the organization,
it's really important as an
organization goes from being a little
as Vivette said,
a checkbook in the trunk of
a car to a significant
organization that needs
really wise leadership to
really build the
infrastructure so that
there would be a base to grow on forward.
Something that I think is,
and I hope we'll have a
chance to talk about this further too,
that continuing in with our
base in La Crosse allowed
us to have the consistency of staff.
I was looking at the website
this morning and realizing that
Terry and Tara and Sharon
have all been there for over 30 years,
over 35 years in many cases.
And you never see that.
But to see the impact of
that on the organization.
And it was, I think,
that wise use of we really
should be in lacrosse,
even though it's not
you know, in the D.C.
area to be able to do what
we can for our members.
And they have helped us show
that that's really possible
by providing the membership
services that we need to
keep the membership going.
Yeah,
the stability of having those three
on staff for all those
years has been a huge plus.
Nancy,
maybe you can speak a little bit to
the research side of things, you know,
kind of tying your role on the ortho,
the section board,
and also your role with the foundation
The Rose Award started
during Jan's tenure and the
section started funding research.
Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Well, I'm glad you mentioned that.
That's that's a great point
that the financial
resources of the
organization allowed the
section to be a leader nationally.
And I think that the Rose
Award and then those early
investments that the ortho
section made in the foundation,
recognizing that it was
important to funnel those
resources into the
foundation nationally to
help the whole profession allowed
the ortho section to not
necessarily have a seat on the board,
but to have that influence
that we had early
involvement in that and
were able to move into board positions.
And Bill and I both served
on the foundation board as
well as chair of the board four times.
And I think that having that bridge
um sort of made us realize
how what important part we
were of the larger body of
research for physical
therapy and I think that
that those contributions in
terms of leadership and in
terms of of dollars um has
made has made a big
difference and is still
very visible today and the
fact that that um stanley
and catherine got involved
with some of their
investments also I think that has really
secured a place for
orthopedic research in the
national body of knowledge.
Very good.
Thank you.
Babette, I'll come back to you.
Can you describe any behind the scenes,
humorous,
surprising events that we would
never glean from reading
minutes in the newsletter
or the business meeting
that you're willing to share?
Wow, that's a great question.
And I think the most
humorous thing for me right
now really is to think back
on what those early board
meetings were like,
what the atmosphere was.
I think when you're sitting
around a board table, so to speak,
you tend to be much more
business oriented.
You have a job to get done.
When you're sitting on beds
in a hotel room on the floor,
on the desk chair, on the whatever,
and there are 10 people,
it's a much less formal experience.
I would say, board meeting.
And so you're much more
likely to joke around,
to make comments that are not specific.
And so it's specific to the
job that needs to get done.
And so I have to think back to the culture,
again, as almost humorous
as to where we are today.
And I think to me that the
irony is with so little,
we accomplish so much and
have continued to
accomplish so much as an academy.
I am far from being actively
involved in orthopedic
practice at this point,
even in a broad context.
And so my focus of clinical
care actually at some point
switched from orthopedics to acute care.
But I have certainly taught
for a long time.
And always told or
encouraged our students who are, oh,
do I have to do an acute care rotation?
All I want is to be an outpatient PT,
is that they will be a much better,
having worked in outpatient,
knowing what outpatient care was like,
that in fact,
you are a much better
outpatient physical therapist.
if you have had exposure to acute care,
because you know when we
talk about our role as
primary care providers in direct access,
when you've done acute care,
when somebody who is sick
walks into your clinic,
you recognize it and you
know to stop and take a
different course of action
than to purely approach
whatever their orthopedic concern is.
And so I very much switched,
but I remain a section or
Academy member today
because I believe in what
the Academy has done and continues to do.
So the Academy has
influenced my life in many
ways and really set me on the path.
I moved from New York to Chicago.
We had the study group and
those early leadership
roles I believe really
helped me learn more about
leadership and gave me the
confidence that I could be a leader
and helped me continue to
seek roles that met my
needs to develop as a leader,
but I think also met the
association's needs and the
profession's needs in a
variety of different ways.
And I've been able to use
what I learned through both
my academy service and my
service to ABTA outside of
physical therapy
And I can look back to some
of those outside
experiences and say they've
absolutely come because of
what I developed through APTA.
Jan, how about you?
Behind the scenes things?
Behind the scenes things
were always a good time and
great memories.
We worked hard, but we also played hard.
wanting to get a team that
was partnering with each other,
being very collaborative, as I said,
versus competitive was
benefited by what we did
outside of our board meetings.
We, as I said before,
worked very hard those first
few years to get the OCS exam in place.
Our first exam was in 1989
and 26 people passed that exam.
But by 1992,
we had 185 OCS specialists
within the country.
We had the land
We had the financial stability.
And so we did fun things
after the meetings were over.
We always usually went to
lacrosse and stayed at the
same hotel in the same location,
but we'd go out for dinner.
And then I thought that it
might be fun for us to
start from a competitive perspective,
bowling competition.
So we would go bowling and
have individual teams that
played against each other.
And it was fascinating to
see how people embraced that opportunity,
whether you were a good
bowler or a horrific bowler.
People would come with hats.
They'd come with shirts.
If they didn't have shirts,
they'd make up shirts.
And we always had a very good time.
If there wasn't the
opportunity to do something
like go bowling, we would go shopping.
And the men were just as
interested in going
shopping as the women were.
And I remember an evening
where Bill O'Grady and I
went shoe shopping.
We still talk about that
activity very fondly as we
think about what we did.
But those were the good memories.
There were hard times, but as I said,
we worked hard for the good
of the orthopedic section
and the members that we were serving,
but we also played hard.
And I think that's important.
That's why doing things that
provide networking
opportunity and team
building opportunities
within boards and within
even just the membership in
general is so important.
And I'd like to see that we
continue to do face-to-face
and in-person types of activities,
not just always electronic
Zoom opportunities with one another.
Nancy?
Yeah.
Okay.
So I have one story and she
may not want me to tell it,
but I will anyway,
and you can leave it in or not.
So one of my favorite
orthopedic section stories,
this is my Katherine Patlis story.
And then we were in
Minnesota and Minneapolis
for the conference and our
board meeting was in the
Lake Minnetonka room.
And Catherine came in late
because she had taken a cab
two hours away to Lake
Minnetonka to the board meeting.
And so she got there and she says,
where's the section?
She says, no, you're at Lake Minnetonka.
So she had to take a two
hour cab back to the board meeting.
And so I think forever and ever since,
Terry and Tara and Sharon
have always put Lake
Minnetonka room or Lake
Michigan room next to the board meeting.
So because of Catherine
logically making that
little mess and giving all
of us lots and lots of laughs.
And then also along the Paris-Patlo line,
I have such fond memories
of cheering on Stanley
Paris in all of his
wonderful renaissance man
ventures that he did to
keep us entertained.
His channel swims and his sails and
all of the different things
that he was involved in and
how not only the academy
and the ortho section,
but the foundation and all
supported him in those
ventures and just gave us
an interesting friend to
follow throughout his life.
It was lots of fun.
And finally,
I do remember shopping with
Jan and that was quite an experience.
I've never done anything
quite like that since.
So thank you, Jan,
for showing me how to shop for shoes.
Power shopping.
Power bowling and power shopping, right?
When you have limited time.
Jan carried the bowling
theme to the APTA board
when I was on the APTA board.
And I moved a few years ago
when we downsized and I
still had my APTA bowling shirt.
And I was like, do I need to move this?
Well,
maybe I should save it because I
could use it as a costume
sometime or something.
And then I was like,
no, you don't need to move this.
It's okay.
You have all those memories
of bowling with the APTA board.
And I didn't realize it
started with the ortho section board.
So.
I still have my APTA shirt too.
I can't give it up.
Well.
Yeah.
My first ortho section
experience at a board meeting, Janice,
when you were president,
I think it was on the
nominating committee.
And, you know,
I didn't really know about
the social events, but we went bowling.
And, you know, being from Wisconsin,
we bowl a lot.
I'm going to like this group.
You already had a shirt with
your name on it.
Yes, that's right.
That's right.
Very good.
Great stories.
You know,
thinking about future leaders and.
within the academy and beyond, you know,
what recommendations would
you have for individuals
and women in particular who
might be interested in
pursuing leadership within the academy,
you know, based on your experiences,
you know, within the academy and beyond?
Babette, I will start with you.
What recommendations might
you give to our early career folks?
I guess two things,
find something that you're
passionate about or even
think you might be passionate about.
Don't say yes to things that
you know you have no desire
to be involved,
but think you ought to say yes.
Find something that you're
passionate about so that
you will continue to grow
that passion and use that
energy for potentially other roles.
And the other thing that I
would say to anyone,
if you have family involved,
make sure your family is
involved in helping to make
the decision so that you
have the time and the
support to do what you will
need to do to be successful.
I think it is very hard,
particularly for women who
are young mothers as well,
that if you do not have support somehow,
somewhere,
that it is very difficult to
make that extra step and be
successful and have a good
experience with that.
And a story I'll share,
When I went on to the APTA board,
there are two stories.
One is the first time I won,
just like Jan said, her daughter asked,
where's the crown?
When I called home to say I won,
My daughter wanted to know
what did I win because
people win cars and TVs and houses.
And my husband said, well,
mommy won more trips away from home.
That was his response.
Okay.
But when she was young and
I'd say I was going, I'd get the mommy,
do you have to go away?
Why you do?
And we worked through that.
By the time I went off the board,
we were sharing a car.
And then I got the, hey, mom,
when are you leaving?
Can I help you pack?
Because when I wasn't there,
the car was hers.
And you go through stages.
You have to really consider,
but make sure that you do have support,
but find something that you
think you can be passionate about.
So whatever you've said yes
to doesn't become a burden.
it becomes an exciting opportunity.
And never slam a door completely shut.
You never say never.
Jan, how about you?
What recommendations would
you give our future leaders?
I'm a big advocate in
mentors and searching out mentors.
The DPT students at both
Slopey Rock University and
Duke University,
we really advocated for
them to find a mentor.
And it doesn't always have
to be someone in the profession,
but if it is,
it tends to be a little bit more helpful.
So whether you're a woman,
you don't always need a female mentor,
or a man doesn't always
need a male mentor.
but seek out a mentor
because it's something that
you can glean from them
through the mistakes that they have made,
and they will help you over
those challenges, obstacles,
opportunities.
They'll oftentimes be able
to recognize an opportunity
for you that you wouldn't even consider.
because you don't think you
have the skillset.
They might see that skillset in you,
and it just has to be
developed and nurtured and embraced.
So a mentor should push you
a little bit beyond your
limits or your comfort zone.
And once you've crossed that
comfort zone and you're in
the area of the unknown,
that's when they're there to
support you and to help you
and to work as a sounding board for you.
It's always helpful if
they're in the same
meetings with you or at the
same conference with you,
because they can open doors
to people that you may not
know and they can make
those introductions.
But on the other hand,
If they're a good mentor,
they might also see you
respond or react in a
meeting in a way that they
have suggestions for you as
to how you might change
that for the future,
knowing who the other
people within that board
are and based on the
experiences that they have had,
because you always want to
have people embrace a vision
And to such a point where
they take it as part of their own,
because then they'll work
hard to support that.
And oftentimes that can
depend on relationships.
A good leader is a person
who listens more than talks.
And if they listen to what
the other people are saying to them,
then they can plan better
as to how to engage those
other individuals to make
sure that everyone's on the
same path to moving the
goal forward for the best outcome.
But I would always recommend
to find a mentor.
Sometimes the mentor will reach out to you
But if they don't,
go ask someone if they
would consider having a
formal mentorship
relationship with you or even informal.
Just would they be willing
to sit down for a cup of
coffee with you and have
the opportunity to chat
about certain things?
but you will learn
exponentially from having
the opportunity to develop
that relationship and have
a mentor-ee relationship,
both personally and professionally.
Yeah, mentoring, a powerful tool for sure.
Nancy?
So I love what Annette and Jen have said,
and those are really important.
I think people have to find their own way.
But basically, it's show up, offer to help,
do what you say you're going to do,
and be somebody that people
can count on because you don't.
realize how rare that is you
know people are always
wanting to sort of be in
the spotlight a bit but to
be able to to to do what
you say you're going to do
and you know and and show
up and that's there's
there's just a lot that
gets you 90 of the way very
good really good advice
good recommendations
All right,
so we'll do one last round robin here,
kind of final thoughts,
looking back on your
association with the
section slash academy.
Final thoughts, fondest memories,
maybe any regrets that you may have had.
Babette, start with you.
You know, I don't think so.
I'm grateful for having had
the opportunity
that early in my career
because I really believe that it,
it got my feet on the ground, um,
helped me see my, uh,
ability to contribute to a
board and really helped
launch a long and very, um,
fruitful for me and
hopefully for the
profession and the
association relationship
and many other leadership
opportunities and growth opportunities.
So I don't have any regrets.
The one thing I learned was
that being a treasurer was not my forte.
I did not enjoy being a
treasurer and perhaps now I would.
Because a treasurer's role
in most of the academies or
even chapters is a much
more global role of
influencing how dollars are
obtained and spent versus
balancing the checkbook.
But that's one thing I've
never done in all my other
APTA roles is I've never
been a treasurer again.
So you learn from doing.
you learn from what you
don't want to do in in the
future so I have no regrets
at all yeah jan fondest
memories final thoughts uh
I likewise do not have any
regrets I would do it all
again and hopefully be
better at it for all the
experience that I know now
that I didn't know then I have two
fondest memories,
most wonderful memories of
my time with the orthopedic section,
and that is the opportunity
in 1988 to have been able
to develop the Black Tying
Roses event and recognize
and honor Dr. Steven J.
Rose for all of his
contributions as the first
recipient of that award.
He unfortunately passed away
the following year,
but that Black Tie and
Roses event continued on for many,
many years when we were
able to recognize all of
the contributors in our
profession who were making
great advances and gains in
the area of research for
the orthopedic section.
So that was very helpful.
My second fondest memory was
the fact that the APTA had
started a small minority
scholarship fund.
And after a year or two,
I think they only had about
$500 worth of contributions.
And we brought the idea to
the board to do a minority
scholarship orthopedic challenge.
And that was if within 12 months,
if the minority scholarship
committee for the APTA
could raise $10,000,
the orthopedic section
would match that $10,000.
And it was fascinating to
see how the other sections,
how the other chapters
really embraced that
challenge and helped them
to raise not only the $10,000,
but exceed that.
And then we gladly matched
the $10,000 at the end of the year.
And that really helped to
kick off the minority scholarship.
on a much more solid and
financial basis to
recognize minority students
going forward to be great
physical therapists.
Very good.
And Nancy?
Is my internet okay?
Can you hear me okay still?
Yes.
Okay.
It just looks like it was
being a little spotty.
So I have spent
last 15 years on the staff
side of nonprofits and
before that I spent 15 or
20 30 years on the member
side of nonprofits and I'd
just like to give a little
shout out to the importance
of the staff in keeping
this organization going I
remember years ago when I
was in the program
committee and we all
thought we were doing all
the work because we were
getting the speakers and we
were showing up and we were
being nice dollar friends
and all that and I remember
terry getting up and she
said I'll be back I'm going
to count the brownies
It's like, what?
You count the brownies?
She said, yes,
because sometimes they don't
give us enough and I've got
to count the sodas and I've
got to do all of this stuff.
And it's like, you know,
there is a whole world that
goes on under that.
And I think with the orthopedic section,
you know, the financial management,
the investment management, the staff.
management that Terry does
and the planning and the
strategy and working with
all the vendors and all of that,
that it's so great to have
an organization that's had
that sort of longevity with
their staff that have kept
this going and that allows
all of us to feel like that
we're doing such a great
job because they're keeping
the boat going behind us.
And I just want to
at this 50th anniversary,
give a shout out to them
who have been there almost
as long as the organization
has been around.
And I appreciate my friendships with them.
They took care of my babies
when I would bring them in
to La Crosse at our meetings.
And I've watched them raise
their children and all
become grandparents and all of that.
So it's been a joy to know them.
And I think we're all better
off for their great
contributions and their many,
many hours of service.
We're not much better off.
Yes.
That's great insight.
Again,
thank you for making time to do this
today.
You know, on behalf of the Academy,
thank you for all your
contributions over the
decades that really helped
shape the organization.
And as we mentioned early on,
it doesn't even beyond into
the profession.
And you mentioned some other
names of women in
particular who assumed
important leadership roles.
You mentioned Carolyn Wadsworth,
who was secretary back in the late 70s,
early 80s,
and then was the fifth
president of the organization.
Dorothy Santee,
who was secretary in the mid to late 70s,
then on the Finance
Committee and served as
treasurer in the 1990s.
I mean,
her role spanned the first 25 years.
Nidhigalarsh also,
who was the president after you, Jan,
also had a big role in the
Education Committee beforehand.
So there's been a number of
women who've made a huge
impact on this organization.
And thank you for the three
of you for representing
them so well today.
So good luck.
And that ends our recording.
So, Jimmy, you're still there.
Well, thank you, Bill.
We appreciate that.