“I tell people I’ve been here all my life,” said Nancy B. Reese ’80, professor and chair of the Department of Physical Therapy.
Reese graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a degree in physical therapy, and though she completed additional degrees at other institutions, she’s been a part of UCA’s physical therapy department since 1988 and has never left. She was named chair in 2004.
As chair, she addresses and manages faculty and student ideas, financial matters, and personnel and curriculum matters.
The department’s mission is to educate leaders in physical therapy, a profession that utilizes interpersonal skills and helps improve patients’ quality of life, Reese said.
“A person who loses their mobility frequently loses their independence, and when you lose independence, you lose your ability to make decisions about your own life,” she said. “That has a huge impact on people. Physical therapy really helps people become more mobile, to keep being mobile, to keep being able to move and to keep being able to be independent.”
She also helped shaped the department into the renowned leadership-focused program it is today. During students’ time in the department, they explore and build on their strengths, learn about teamwork and communication, and grow confidence in their abilities. Reese also stays up to date on the health care system and what employers seek from graduates.
“Every program has to train their students in professionalism, but not every program trains their students to be leaders,” she said.
It’s fitting, then, that the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) named Reese a Catherine Worthingham Fellow for 2019. According to the association, the designation, which is the highest honor APTA awards, recognizes those “who have demonstrated unwavering efforts to advance the physical therapy profession for more than 15 years.”
“It was a huge honor because there are only 200, or maybe a few more, in the nation, and there’s over 100,000 members of the APTA,” she said. “It’s pretty humbling to be among that group because these are people that all my life as a [physical therapist], I’ve just looked up to going, ‘Wow.'”
Reese’s goals for the department include ensuring it works toward excellence in physical therapy education.
“One of the concepts of our definition of excellence is: You never attain excellence; you’re always striving toward it. It’s not a destination. It’s a journey,” she said. “For me, that journey toward excellence is going to continue to drive our program.”