Category: News

As of the fall of 2017, UNC physical therapy students have begun to attend Urban Ministry of Durham, a nonprofit that connects poor and homeless neighbors to food, shelter and a future, to provide PT evaluations and treatments to individuals with limited resources and/or the uninsured. UNC pharmacy students have...

First-year students in the Division of Physical Therapy gathered on Friday, February 9, 2017, to participate in a baby lab as part of a course in motor development and human movement across the lifespan. The experience is hosted by the program and community-based physical therapists. As part of the baby...

The UNC PT Board of Advisors has challenged all PT alumni to support this golden opportunity. Thanks to a generous donation from the Dr. Margaret L. Moore estate, the Division of Physical Therapy has the unique opportunity to establish its first professorship. Dr. Moore made a generous estate commitment to establish the first...

Ruth U. Mitchell, PT, PhD, of Apex, North Carolina, passed away on January 7, 2018 at UNC Hospitals after a brief illness. She was 85 years old. Dr. Mitchell was a Professor Emerita in the Division of Physical Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was...

Faculty from UNC’s Physical Therapy (PT) division and the Department of Exercise and Sports Science met in early November on the UNC campus with fellow PT faculty from the School of Health Sciences at Winston-Salem State University to brainstorm ideas for future collaboration. As the group of 20 shared current...

Vicki Mercer, PT, PhD, has received the award of Outstanding Physical Therapist, an annual award given by the North Carolina Physical Therapy Association (NCPTA). Mercer, who has been a physical therapist for more than 35 years, has maintained a love for clinical practice. In her nomination letter for the award, Deborah...

In October, the Division of Physical Therapy participated in the North Carolina Physical Therapy Association’s Outreach Challenge at the Association’s fall conference. The challenge aimed to recognize the program whose students logged the most collective volunteer hours outside of program requirements. Of all the NCPTA schools that participated, UNC had...

The UNC Student Physical Therapy Association (SPTA) and the Division of Physical Therapy officially welcomed 32 incoming students in the class of 2020 at a professionalism ceremony on Friday, September 8, 2017, in the Medical Biomolecular Research Building. Division director Deborah Givens, PT, PhD, DPT, said the ceremony is an...

The Division of Physical Therapy celebrated its 58th annual commencement ceremony on Saturday, August 5, 2017, at the William and Ida Friday Center. More than 30 graduates representing the Doctor of Physical Therapy and the transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy programs received their degrees. Three physical therapists who completed residencies in...

People with cerebral palsy (CP) are now living longer than they ever have before. But a longer life with CP can include more complex health issues that providers are struggling to accommodate. One physical therapist at UNC wants to change that. When Sarah Dowd was diagnosed with breast cancer in...