As the American Physical Therapy Association celebrates its centennial, faculty from the physical therapy program demonstrated educational excellence and innovation through providing seven educational sessions and professional presentations at the Education Leadership Conference late October in Atlanta, GA.

The Educational Leadership Conference (ELC) is an annual, three-day conference where physical therapist administrators, educators, leaders, and clinicians meet to collaborate, learn, and innovate methods to optimize the physical therapy profession through education and leadership with the aim to meet the evolving healthcare needs of society.

This year’s conference focus was on habits for the development of an impactful and sustainable future for all, as you will see reflected in many of the program and presentation titles:

• Tamara Struessel, Enhancing the Patient Experience through Innovative Quality Improvement Education
• Dawn Magnusson, Exploring Connections between Habits of Heart and Health: Re-imagining Physical Therapy Education
• Catherine Bilyeu, Core Competencies for Clinical Educators: Discussion, Debate, and Furthering the Pursuit of Excellence
• Dana L. Judd, Amy Wallace McDevitt, A Blended Approach to the Development of Psychomotor Skill in the Beginner Learner
• Catherine Bilyeu, Jenny W. Rodriguez, Creating a Culture of Excellence: Utilizing Clinical-Academic Partnerships to Cultivate Clinical Instructor Development Opportunities
• Lauren Hinrichs, Dana L. Judd, Meghan Hernandez, Mary Jane K. Rapport, Peer review of teaching to promote excellence: A scoping review
• Catherine Bilyeu. Creating Associated Faculty Development Opportunities: Enhancing Habits of the Head and Heart

Congratulations and thank you to these presenters and their colleagues in the physical therapy program for all their efforts in modeling excellence for students, and for their ongoing drive to educate compassionate, competent, ethical physical therapists to assume the multi-faceted roles of a physical therapist and transform society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience.