Champion Partners in Rehab is one of the largest contract therapy companies in Alabama, providing comprehensive rehabilitation (occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech language pathology) to patients in a variety of settings across the state. The company, co-founded in 1999 by Myra Bolton (OT, 1984), started as a handful of committed professionals and has now grown to more than 500 employees including Stacey Rhodes (OT, 2002), who leads as the Corporate Director of Operations.

Champion Partners in Rehab collaborates closely with the UAB SHP family by offering clinical rotation and shadowing sites for OT and PT students and hiring both recent and seasoned graduates.

Read more: SHP Finds a Champion in Collaboration with Scott

Beth Whitehead (PT, 1972)Physical Therapy alumna and HealthActions co-founder Beth Whitehead (PT, 1972) says what she learned back then at UAB, is what is still taught on campus today: your education does not end when you finish school.

And since founding the company in 1981, Whitehead and HealthActions’ co-founder Debbie Powell have strived to develop themselves, their employees and their staff to be “their best” in all they do through continuing education that is available to everyone.

“We provide APTA membership to all licensed staff and our practice aligns with its vision and strategies,” said Whitehead. “Additionally, we maintain a learning environment that promotes ongoing mentorship as well as continued education opportunities in house and externally that promotes clinical skills, clinical reasoning and professionalism.”

Read more: HealthActions: Investing in People

The folders lining the shelves of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Histocompatibility Lab represent people — husbands and wives. Children and veterans. Mothers and fathers. Friends and strangers.

Divyank SainiDivyank Saini There are no faces attached to the folders, but there are names. There are ages. And, there are stories. Stories of need, and stories of hope. The folders represent more than 3,500 Alabamians and others from the Deep South waiting for a transplant that will — at the least — improve their lives, and — at the most — save them.

For Divyank Saini, a UAB lab technologist and one of 17 employees who work behind the scenes at UAB Hospital to bring hope to those waiting on heart, lung, kidney, liver and other transplants, interpreting lab samples to see which folder would match which just was not quite enough. Earlier this year, Saini — known as Div by his colleagues — decided to donate a kidney to someone in need as part of the UAB Kidney Chain. The chain, which celebrates its three-year anniversary this December, has seen 67 patients receive a transplant since it began at UAB Hospital in 2013.

Read more: SHP Alumnus Gives Life with Donation