By Katarina Fiorentino Klatzkow and Jill Pease
Four faculty members of the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions department of physical therapy have received high honors from the American Physical Therapy Association. They will be honored at the APTA’s Leadership Congress held July 19-23 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Joel Bialosky, Ph.D., P.T., a clinical professor, is the recipient of the Dorothy Baethke-Eleanor J. Carlin Award for Excellence in Academic Teaching. The award recognizes exceptional teaching effectiveness, distinct expertise and excellence as a role model for academic teaching for students, faculty and clinicians.
An expert in musculoskeletal dysfunction, pain and manual therapy, Bialosky is highly cited and in demand as an invited speaker at national and international conferences. He teaches courses in the musculoskeletal track of the Doctor of Physical Therapy curriculum, where he receives exceptional evaluations and frequently provides both professional and personal support to students who take advantage of his open-door policy. An early adopter of blended learning to make the classroom experience more effective for students, Bialosky also provides education outside the classroom as a faculty mentor for the student-run Physical Therapy Equal Access Clinic. In addition, he serves as a mentor and instructor with the UF Health Sports Physical Therapy and Orthopedic Physical Therapy residency programs, and Brooks Rehabilitation residency and fellowship programs, providing a critical link between practice and D.P.T. education. What drives all his efforts, a nominator wrote, is a “pure and heartfelt love of teaching.”
Mark Bishop, Ph.D., P.T., FAPTA, a professor and director of UF’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program, has been selected for the 2024 Marian Williams Award for Research in Physical Therapy. The award honors physical therapists and research scientists who have contributed outstanding research that has been sustained for at least 10 years to the profession of physical therapy.
As a clinician scientist, Bishop’s contributions to the science of human movement and movement dysfunction are both extensive and impactful. He is a highly regarded expert in musculoskeletal pain and manual therapy, with high-impact publications in a variety of rehabilitation, pain and neuroscience journals. He has participated in more than 140 presentations nationally and internationally and has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, and state and private agencies since 2008. In addition to his research, Bishop spends significant time interacting with practicing clinicians and entry-level students to demonstrate how research translates to clinical practice. His commitment to the physical therapy profession has led to advocating for key legislative issues in Florida, including access and acceptance of physical therapy as an alternative to opioids.
Dorian Rose, Ph.D., P.T., FAPTA, a research professor and a research scientist with Brooks Rehabilitation and the Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center, has been named a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the APTA, the association’s highest membership category. The honor recognizes physical therapists who have demonstrated unwavering efforts to advance the physical therapy profession for more than 15 years.
Rose’s service to the physical therapy profession includes serving as program chair of the American Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy, co-chair of the StrokEdge II task force, member of the original StrokEdge task force, nominating committee chair, member of the Subacute Locomotor CPG task force and co-chair of the curriculum committee task force. She also served on the research committee for the Florida Physical Therapy Association. A member of the Brooks-PHHP Research Collaboration, her interests as a researcher, clinician and educator are in adult neurorehabilitation. Specifically, she studies intervention strategies based on principles of neuroplasticity and motor learning for rehabilitation of motor control deficits of the upper extremity and gait, as well as respiratory health.
Claudia Senesac, Ph.D., P.T., a clinical professor, is the recipient of the APTA Humanitarian Award. This honor recognizes individuals who exemplify the compassionate nature of physical therapy by actively expressing a commitment to humanity and demonstrating selflessness in addressing key health concerns.
Senesac’s service to her profession is exemplified through her long commitment to improving physical therapy practice and access in underserved countries, including the expansion of continuing education opportunities to physical therapists in Latin America. Additionally, she has worked tirelessly to improve quality of life for caregivers and children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and infants with disabilities. She has led collaborative international student exchange programs, trained over 350 health care practitioners on topics related to physical therapy management of children, and served as national educational speaker with the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy organization. She played a key role in the development of UF’s INSPIRE program, a training grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education to prepare aspiring physical, occupational and speech therapists to work in early intervention and early childhood programs with children with complex medical needs.