By Jill Pease
Mark Bishop, Ph.D., P.T., a professor in the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions Department of Physical Therapy, is one of two UF faculty members inducted this year into the university’s Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars. The academy is designed to honor exceptional teaching and scholarship accomplishments by inducting faculty members who have demonstrated sustained innovation and commitment in both areas.
“It is rare to find someone who excels so remarkably in both teaching and research,” said Beth A. Virnig, Ph.D., M.P.H., dean of the College of Public Health and Health Professions. “Dr. Bishop is the educator who changes lives and helps shape careers and everyone loves him for it.”
UF Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars inductees serve a three-year term on a Provost’s Office advisory board in order to assist in developing programs and policies that enhance the professional careers and experiences of faculty. Academy members also promote a university-wide discourse on key issues surrounding the integration of teaching and research. Following their advisory board term, inductees retain the Distinguished Teaching Scholar title and continue to be a part of the academy.
The director of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program, Bishop has served on the physical therapy faculty for more than 20 years and has earned numerous awards for his contributions to teaching, pain research and advancing the physical therapy profession. These include the Dorothy E. Baethke-Eleanor J. Carlin Award for Excellence in Academic Teaching from the American Physical Therapy Association and the APTA’s highest honor, the Catherine Worthingham Fellowship. Bishop’s research, which is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health, focuses on the management of musculoskeletal pain. Last year, he received the APTA’s Marian Williams Award for Research in Physical Therapy, which honors scientists who have contributed outstanding research for at least 10 years.
Bishop has recently overseen several modifications to the Doctor of Physical Therapy curriculum. These include implementing changes to curriculum delivery in response to the pandemic that were adopted permanently because of their success, such as increased use of learning technology and smaller student group sizes with more local clinician support. In addition, Bishop and fellow D.P.T. faculty members have recently revised the program curriculum to add course content on emerging rehabilitation practices, artificial intelligence applications and UF’s rehabilitation research.
“My primary goal for teaching and mentoring is to maximize student engagement,” Bishop said. “I want to end every teaching encounter with the learner wanting to know more about the topic. Once that happens, my job is mostly done to some extent. When a learner wants to understand more about the topic, the learner will begin a process of discovery and mastery, developing the tools to become that lifelong learner along the way.”