Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions is proud to announce that Health Promotion and Wellness PhD student Rupal Patel received APTA’s Minority Faculty Development Scholarship Award during the association’s NEXT Conference & Exposition, held in National Harbor, Maryland, June 3-6, 2015. Ms. Patel is currently an associate clinical professor in the DPT program at Texas Woman’s University alongside her PhD candidacy. Her expertise is in managing patients with neurologic dysfunction, especially TBIs, stroke and spinal injury.
The Minority Faculty Development Scholarship Award is bestowed annually on faculty who are members of racial/ethnic minorities and who are pursuing a post-professional doctoral degree by the Physical Therapy Fund, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization supported by APTA. Award recipients must demonstrate commitment to minority services and activities and show superior achievements in the profession of physical therapy.
Ms. Patel’s accomplishments and contributions to the field of Physical Therapy have a wide reach. She has presented regionally and nationally on topics such as program development for individuals with disabilities, development of community-based lifestyle intervention programs and Body weight supported treadmill training for patients with TBIs. She received the Director’s Award from TWU in 2008 and she has served her profession as a manuscript reviewer for the Archives of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation, as an APTA elected delegate. She is an active member of several associations, including the APTA, Texas Physical Therapy Association and Texas Consortium for Physical Therapy Education and she is also a member of the Southeastern District on the SED committee. She serves her community through Neighborhood Centers, Inc. Student Health Advisory Committee for Promise Chapter Schools and Head Start/Early Head Start programs.
