In honor of Black History Month, the UAB Department of Physical Therapy celebrates the Black/African American individuals who have had a profound influence on the profession.

The UAB School of Health Professions has 12 people, including Dean Andrew J. Butler, Ph.D., named to the Birmingham Business Journal’s 2021 Who’s Who in Health Care.

Five students have been awarded a UAB School of Health Professions Blazer Forever Scholarship. The award is given to SHP students during Homecoming Week based on their answer to an essay question. This year, we asked the question: What makes you different? 

The UAB National Alumni Society has named six UAB School of Health Professions’ (SHP) alumni to the UAB Excellence in Business Top 25. The program was created to identify, recognize, and celebrate the success of the top 25 UAB alumni-owned or UAB alumni-managed businesses.

The UAB School of Health Professions has awarded inaugural faculty grants to Matt Ithurburn, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, and Haiyan Qu, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Health Services Administration.

The School of Health Professions (SHP) Student Awards, for the fall semester of 2020, were managed by the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) with endorsement from the Program Directors. Due to COVID-19, we were not able to recognize our exceptional students with an award ceremony. Nonetheless, it does not diminish their excellence or their accomplishments.

The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees appointed Donald Lein, PT, Ph.D., to the Bergman/Pinkston Endowed Professorship in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Physical Therapy on November, 13, 2020. Lein is only the second ever to earn the physical therapy professorship that honors UAB professors emeritus Joan Bergman and Dorothy Pinkston.

Logan Paul Myrick, a Physical Therapy student expected to graduate December 2022, has been awarded a UAB School of Health Professions Blazer Forever Scholarship. The award is given to five SHP students during Homecoming Week based on their answer to an essay question. This year, there were nearly 100 submissions to the question: What makes you most proud to be a UAB Blazer?

Carla Rigo Lima, a PhD in Rehabilitation Science student expected to graduate May 2023, has been awarded a UAB School of Health Professions Blazer Forever Scholarship. The award is given to five SHP students during Homecoming Week based on their answer to an essay question. This year, there were nearly 100 submissions to the question: What makes you most proud to be a UAB Blazer?

The UAB School of Health Professions’ Wellness and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committees collaborated to create tours of the murals and landmarks that celebrate Birmingham’s history in the Civil Rights Movement, plus, today’s efforts for justice and healing. These tours can be enjoyed walking, driving or online.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this came to life in order to provide UAB PT second-year students an opportunity to participate in providing physical therapy via telehealth.

Rocky and Amelia Barnes established the Barnes Family Endowed Scholarship. In a recent Q&A session, Rocky told us how he ended up at UAB, what advice he gives students today, and why he supports UAB PT: "I felt the need and obligation to give back to the program that has given so much to me."

The UAB Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy graduate programs each move up in the latest U.S. News & World Report “America’s Best Grad Schools” rankings. The MSOT program is now #23 and the DPT program is now #13.

Emma Richardson, a postdoctoral fellow in the Exercise Neuroscience Research Lab, wins first place in the 2020 UAB Postdoctoral Research Day Science Blitz category. Her focus was “What is it like to age with MS?” which came from work she developed as one of the first recipients of the Healthy Aging through LifesTyle in Multiple Sclerosis (HALT MS) pilot grant awards.

Stephanie Silveira, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Exercise Neuroscience Research Lab, receives a National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award. The award, known as an NIH F32, is given to postdoc candidates “who have the potential to become productive, independent investigators in scientific health-related research fields.”

Matthew Ithurburn, PT, DPT, PhD, assistant professor in the UAB School of Health Professions’ Department of Physical Therapy, has been selected by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Section on Research as a 2019 recipient of the Emerging Leader Award. Ithurburn, who is also treasurer of the Biomechanics Special Interests Group (2018-2020), was nominated by the Section’s leadership to recognize his accomplishments and contributions to the PT profession and the APTA, early in his career.

Andrew Butler, Ph.D., dean of the UAB School of Health Professions, was recently elected to the Lakeshore Foundation and the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions Board of Directors. Butler, who became dean of SHP in July 2019, came to UAB from the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions at Georgia State University where he was associate dean for Research and director of the Clinical Neuroplasticity Lab.

On Thursday, August 1, 2019, Sean Skelton, PT, DPT, a Physical Therapy Resident in UAB Medicine, became the first to finish the UAB Neurologic Physical Therapy Residency program. Skelton received a graduate certificate during a small ceremony at UAB Spain Rehabilitation Center.

Faculty and alumni from the UAB Department of Physical Therapy, along with students from the UAB Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program, were joined by students from UAB’s Department of Occupational Therapy and School of Engineering, to adapt electric toy cars for Alabama children with disabilities as part of the nationwide GoBabyGo program.

Andrew Butler, PT, Ph.D.,FAPTA, dean of the UAB School of Health Professions, was honored as a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) at the PT NEXT conference on June 13, 2019. The FAPTA award is the association’s highest honor.