Tyler Huff, a 2019 graduate of the physical therapy program, knows his success isn’t just for his own benefit. “As a minority in the medical field, you prove so much to yourself and others, and set an example for young boys and girls who see you working in a field where you stick out,” he said. "I know I show young people of color that they, too, can become a medical professional.” 

Susan Effgen, PT, PhD, has spent more than 45 years consulting, researching, and publishing on issues related to children with disabilities in the United States and abroad. After a storied career and 20 years serving the College of Health Sciences as a professor in the physical therapy and rehabilitation sciences doctoral program, Effgen retired from academia in January.  

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 251 babies are born worldwide each minute launching women and men everywhere into a new season of life as parents. Motherhood is a beautiful gift but it's not without difficulties or confusion.

First-year Doctor of Physical Therapy student Gabbie Van Scoy feels right at home in the Horse Capital of the World. Her experience riding and working with horses has been instrumental in her journey to become a physical therapist. 

Billie J. Randolph, PhD, PT (Colonel, U.S. Army Retired) has known since childhood that helping people is in her DNA. What she didn’t know in those early years was just how far this calling was going to take her: from central Kentucky to the Army; to Walter Reed Army Medical Center; the White House; the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and more, Randolph has left a lasting mark on people and patients around the world.

What if you could travel the United States doing the profession you love, pay off student loans, and live in close proximity to places most people only visit? That’s exactly how physical therapy alums Steve and Ellen Stockhausen have lived their life for the past six years. 

Access to care is one of the most pressing issues practitioners encounter in both rural and urban areas. Americans face a slew of issues when seeking medical care: Lack of insurance, transportation, finances, and time, to name a few. That’s why the UK College of Health Sciences sends faculty and students to offer no cost health care to local populations in Kentucky through events like the Remote Area Medical brigade.

The hours can be demanding, the job trying, but ask any physical therapist if the work is worth it and you’ll be met with a resounding yes. Physical therapists (PTs) are tasked with the unique job of  helping patients regain their independence and recover their movement function. About 70 percent of UKPT graduates decide to practice in Kentucky bringing more exceptional care than ever to the Commonwealth.

Not every person’s passion is realized in an all-consuming epiphany; in fact, for human health sciences junior Emily Appel, her grand moment of revelation happened in the back of her mother’s car on the way to a college fair. 

In the nineties, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) medical specialist Edward Kasarskis, MD, PhD, director of UK’s ALS Multidisciplinary Clinic, asked Tony English, PT, PhD, now the director of physical therapy at the College of Health Sciences, to participate in one of his new research studies. This partnership soon morphed into a clinic and later a collaboration to help find novel treatments for a rare type of the neurodegenerative disease in Kentucky patients.