Caballero is a first-generation college student with a long history of leadership and service. Still in her first-year of Elon’s DPT program, she is on the leadership team for the Health Outreach Program of Elon (H.O.P.E.) Clinic, a physical therapy clinic managed and operated by Elon DPT students that offers free services to those uninsured or under-insured in Alamance County and surrounding areas. Caballero also serves as a H.O.P.E. Clinic liaison to the , a Global Learning Ambassador, and a representative on the School of Health Sciences Diversity Committee where she assists in the design and implementation of monthly events open to all programs within the School of Health Sciences.

Caballero, one of ten DPT students in the US to receive the scholarship this year, says she aspires to be “a physical therapist who will provide compassionate and culturally sensitive healthcare.” Professor of physical therapy education Janet Cope, who nominated Caballero for the award, would undoubtedly say she is well on her way to achieving that goal. In her nomination letter, Cope commented on Caballero’s academic maturity and her quiet commitment to supporting her peers, inside the classroom and out.

“She’s a delightful human!” Cope remarked, in response to the good news.

Rizing Tide’s mission is to empower a new generation of BIPOC leaders in the physical therapy profession by providing scholarships to help address the costs of higher education and offering mentorship and leadership skill training to the scholars. Fiorella Barreda, in Elon’s DPT class of 2024, was also recognized with the Rizing Tide Crest Scholarship in 2022.

“Music has always been very therapeutic for me,” says Aaron Zettel ’26, a first-year physical therapy student.

Charity Johansson, interim department chair in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, first noticed Zettel eyeing a baby grand piano during a community-based course activity at Twin Lakes Community.

“The way Aaron was looking at that piano, I knew playing had to be special to him,” said Johansson. And it was.

“If I had a piano here,” Zettel said, “I would play it every day.”

That’s when Johansson began her quest to find a piano to house in the Francis Center. She reached out to Hallie Hogan, chair of the Department of Music.

“I’m overjoyed that the music department was asked to contribute to this endeavor,” Hogan said. “Making music brings our minds into focus, helps us release stress and brings a unique joy to our senses.  Many students play the pianos in the Center for the Arts, and now this one will hopefully make a difference in students’ lives across campus.”

“For me, a piano in the Francis Center represents the integration of mind, body, and spirit that Elon is known for,” said Johansson to students, faculty and staff from all three School of Health Sciences programs who gathered to celebrate on June 28.

“Music and the health sciences have more in common than you might think at first,” said Maha Lund, dean of the School of Health Sciences. “They both require creativity and pattern recognition, and you have to practice, practice, practice to become an expert.”

“There’s plenty of research demonstrating the value of playing and listening to piano music as a way of decreasing stress and improving well-being,” said Johansson. “The School of Health Science’s physical therapy, nursing and physician assistant programs can be intense, and I’m pleased that our students will have this avenue for reducing the stress.”

Zettel, who played for the large group that had gathered, couldn’t agree more.

“If you can relate a song or music to what you’re going through in your personal life, you can often find the solution to the problems you’re encountering, and then you have an outlet,” Zettel said.

Zettel also looks forward to opportunities for more connections among the students in the different programs.

“Music breaks the barrier of unknowns between people,” said Zettel. “You may not even know somebody, but you’re able to play a song that they connect with, and before you know it, you’ve started a relationship.”

“I’m looking forward to hearing more beautiful and uplifting music in this lovely space,” Lund said as the celebration concluded.

And it didn’t take long. Even as people headed back to their offices and classrooms, people were still smiling as more students were taking their turns at the keys.

This national award honors students in their last year of an accredited program for their superior scholastic ability and their potential for future contributions to both the physical therapy profession and the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). DeMarco, who graduated from Elon’s DPT program in December 2023, was nominated for the award while in her third year as a DPT student.

DeMarco demonstrated academic excellence and outstanding leadership throughout her time at Elon. She was the Class of 2023’s delegate to the APTA-NC Student Special Interest Group and represented APTA-NC at the Health Occupations ľĂľĂČČ of America state leadership conference, promoting health education for students in middle school, high school and college. As chair of the North Carolina Student Conclave Project Committee, DeMarco led a team of eight students from programs across the state in planning and executing a highly successful conference for PT and PTA students. She represented the DPT program on National Biomechanics Day, providing virtual and in-person workshops locally with the Alamance-Burlington School System, students in California and Massachusetts and even students at two universities in India.

As a Student Mentee in the APTA-NC Delegation Mentorship Program, DeMarco volunteered at the 2021 APTA-NC annual conference and at the national 2023 APTA Combined Sections Meeting. During the APTA’s 2023 Leadership Congress and United States House of Delegates meeting in Washington, DC, she served as a student usher and assistant to the Reference Committee. An APTA member since 2020, DeMarco belongs to the Neurology, Orthopedic, and Research sections.

DeMarco served as Treasurer for H.O.P.E., Elon’s student-managed pro bono physical therapy clinic, where she logged over 150 volunteer hours. She is also co-author on a peer-reviewed journal article and on nine peer-reviewed presentations, all stemming from her research conducted during her DPT education.

Within the larger Elon community, DeMarco participated in Elon’s Start Early in Medicine career fair and took part in ľĂľĂČČ’s Family Weekend, providing interactive educational sessions to ľĂľĂČČ students and their visiting families on the anatomy and physiology of the human heart. In addition, DeMarco is a collaborator on Assistant Professor Crystal Ramsey’s 2023 $10,000 grant from the United Way of Alamance County to improve physical therapy services to the county’s underserved populations.

Prior to her graduation in December, DeMarco was recognized with numerous honors. In addition to being named the Elon DPT Class of 2023 Outstanding Student and being inducted into the ACAPT National Student Honor Society, DeMarco received two prestigious statewide awards in 2023: APTA-NC’s Outstanding Student Award and the Ben F. Massey, Jr. Student Scholarship.

The Department of Physical Therapy Education is privileged to have such a remarkable graduate recognized with this outstanding national award.

Professor Johansson and Assistant Professor Ramsey are faculty members in the Department of Physical Therapy Education. Associate Professor Emerita Chinworth served as a long-time faculty member before retiring from the physical therapy department in 2017.

The textbook promotes foundational patient mobility skills that are shaped by sound principles, clinical reasoning, and respect for patient autonomy.

“Since its first publication in 2012, ‘Mobility in Context: Principles of Patient Care Skills’ has received rave reviews from educators and students alike. We expect nothing less of the new, third edition that improves upon an already stellar text with new additions that include: greater emphasis on clinical decision-making, new information on neurological conditions and how they affect mobility, greater coverage of wheelchair as primary method of locomotion, as well as expanded instructor and student resources and more,” said Jennifer Pine, senior sponsoring editor for health professors at F.A. Davis.

Examining the principles underlying mobility decisions, integrating current evidence and articulating clinical reasoning processes, “Mobility in Context” seeks to equip practitioners to succeed in an evolving world of healthcare that will demand their highest levels of critical thinking and professional judgment.

“Used in nearly 300 physical and occupational educational programs, ‘Mobility in Context’ has become one of F.A. Davis’s most successful texts,” Pine said.

The cover of the third edition features Zachary Ormond DPT’23 and Debbie Perry, program assistant for the Department of Education and Wellness & Exercise Science, as well as alumnae Sabrina Fogleman DPT, Chioma Ichoku DPT and Carolyn Vincent DPT.

Several other Elon faculty, staff and alumni appear in hundreds of the book’s illustrations set against the backdrop of Elon’s beautiful campus and state-of-the-art facilities.

The research presentation, "Challenging Existing Norms for Geriatric Functional Outcome Measures: 6MWT, FTSTS, TUG, and SLS." was co-authored by Claire Hildebrand (DPT 2020), Kailey Treiger (DPT 2019), Brittani Sullivan (DPT 2020), Mackenzie Borrowman (DPT 2020) and Kiana Witherspoon (DPT 2020).

The study's findings indicate that older adults who exercise at the level recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine (at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week) perform significantly better than the established norms on several common functional outcome measures. The authors suggest that healthcare professionals consider using these preliminary normative values rather than the established norms when establishing target performance for healthy aging among older adults. 

Johansson and her students are currently working on two manuscripts based on their research.

What they often don’t expect, says Johansson, are the challenges to their understanding of who they are as professionals along the way—that the journey is not merely about an expansion of their existing knowledge and skills but a fundamental change in the way they understand healthcare and their place in it.

At the essence of this shift, she contends, is the understanding of their very purpose as physical therapists—of what it means to help.

Unique in its principle-centered approach to clinical decision making, "Mobility in Context" equips students to maximize patient independence in “textbook” situations and beyond. Responding to advancements in medical practice, the new edition includes updated information on surgical procedures, hypertension guidelines and pressure-injury staging, as well as patient mobility in intensive care settings, culturally competent care of transgender patients, and prevention of compassion fatigue.

Many of the more than 750 illustrations feature Elon faculty, staff, students and alumni against the backdrop of Elon’s beautiful campus and state-of-the-art facilities.

In the session, titled “Advanced Training of Standardized Patients for Dementia Care, Skillman and Johansson shared the training system they developed to address the unique challenges of preparing standardized patients (SPs) to portray patients with dementia.

The system consists of in-depth education on the anatomy and physiology of dementia, role-playing effective ways to approach a person with dementia, and the use of training videos featuring a dementia care specialist. Participants were provided with a fully developed SP case from Dr. Johansson’s Geriatric Health and Wellness course in the DPT curriculum.

Skillman and Johansson coached participants in building progressively challenging cases and adapting the case to other professional settings, and shared results from a study they conducted on the effectiveness of including SP activities on DPT students’ perceived abilities to work effectively with patients with dementia.

Workshop participants will explore appropriate use of current terminology, evidence-based practices that address the healthcare needs of sexual minorities, and becoming advocates for sexual minority patients in the healthcare setting

The Educational Leadership Conference, sponsored by the APTA’s Section on Education, will be held Oct. 10-11, 2014 in Kansas City, Missouri. The conference focuses on shaping the future of physical therapy education. Johansson is a professor of physical therapy in the School of Health Sciences.  Fogleman is currently a second-year student in Elon’s DPT program. 

The workshop, “Educating Healthcare Professionals for Tomorrow’s World: An Appreciative Inquiry Approach to Positive Change and Transformative Learning,” engaged participants in an Appreciative Inquiry interview process aimed at fostering transformative learning during the education of healthcare practitioners.