PT leaders from around the country gathered last week in Alexandria at the APTA Centennial Center. This event brings the APTA Board of Directors, APTA Association Leadership Scholars, Component President and Executive Director teams, and our PT neighbors together to celebrate and strengthen what makes our community better. APTA CO was well represented at the event through the participation of APTA CO President Rebekah Griffith, Executive Director Jim Leahy, APTA Speaker Bill McGehee, and APTA Scholar Liam Kiernan.

Our APTA CO leadership was proud to watch as our own APTA Leadership Scholar Liam Kiernan presented to a panel of “Shark Tank” judges as his Capstone project.  It was also hard to miss APTA CO member and APTA House Speaker Bill McGehee as a member of the “Shark Tank” judges’ crew in his tie-dyed bandana, as the mood was lightened (photo below).  Bill, alongside three other APTA Board members, provided excellent feedback to the scholars.

The opening night activities included a presentation by Paul Beattie and his Wilderness PT Educators.  The group, which held a CSM pre-con at Joshua Tree NP in February, is now set to host a course from July 14 – 17 in Colorado.  Stay tuned. 

We were also lucky to have a private screening of the documentary film, “Rock Faced It All,” featuring Teresa Bennet and her family as she learned rock climbing to help in her fight to stem the tide of Parkinson’s disease.  Teresa’s daughter Clare was the filmmaker and her husband Jack was the long-time general counsel at APTA until his retirement.

We are excited to bring the lessons from the CommUNITY Summit back to Colorado as we look to continue the fight for our patients and our profession.