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We recognize outstanding achievements by our members through an annual honors and awards program.
The APTA Honors & Awards Program recognizes outstanding achievements by members in the areas of overall accomplishment, education, practice and service, publications, research, and academic excellence.
Information about eligibility and the nominations process is included in the individual descriptions below.
Nominations and Selections
The nominations call for the Honors & Awards Program is open from Sept. 1-Dec. 1. Nominations must be submitted through our online portal by Dec. 1; late submissions will not be considered. Selected recipients and their nominators are typically notified in May, with recipients invited to that year's Honors & Awards Ceremony at the APTA Leadership Congress.
Resources
Recipients
Honors
Awards
The Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association, the association’s highest membership category, serves as inspiration for all physical therapists to attain professional excellence.
Awards
The Honorary Membership category is reserved for those who are not licensed as physical therapist professionals but have made significant measurable and profound contributions to the profession as a whole.
Lecture Awards
Awards
This award is annually presented to a PT member who has demonstrated clinical expertise and significant contributions to the physical therapy profession.
Awards
The Mary McMillan Lecture is the most distinguished honor an active APTA member physical therapist or life member can receive.
Education Awards
Awards
This award is for clinical or academic educators who have been actively engaged for a minimum of 5 years in entry or advanced levels of formal education for upcoming physical therapy professionals.
Awards
This award recognizes the importance of the role of physical therapist assistant educators in ensuring the continued provision of graduates who participate in the provision of high-quality physical therapist services.
Awards
This award acknowledges an outstanding new faculty member who is pursuing a career as an academician and has demonstrated excellence as exemplified by the professional career of Margaret L. Moore.
Awards
This award recognizes programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education that have successfully demonstrated ongoing initiatives to assist minority students for at least 3 consecutive years.
Awards
This award honors a PT in a site coordinator of clinical education or clinical instructor role who has been actively engaged in clinical teaching at entry or advanced levels of physical therapy education for a minimum of 5 years.
Awards
This award honors individual achievements in the areas of patient care, community service, and commitment toward the profession and association.
This award honors recent fellowship graduates in order to recognize the intrinsic value of post-professional training and thereby promote and provide for the development and accreditation of fellowship education programs in physical therapy.
This award honors recent residency graduates in order to recognize the intrinsic value of post-professional training and thereby promote and provide for the development and accreditation of residency education programs in physical therapy.
Awards
This award recognizes a PT/PTA team whose positive work has contributed to the delivery of high-quality physical therapist services.
Practice & Service Awards
Awards
This award honors individuals who exemplify the compassionate nature of the physical therapy profession by actively expressing a commitment to humanity and exhibiting admirable degrees of selflessness in addressing key health concerns.
Awards
This award recognizes a physical therapy professional who has engaged in extensive clinical practice for a minimum of 15 years.
Awards
This award acknowledges and honors physical therapists and physical therapist assistants whose contributions to the association at both the national and component levels, like those of Lucy Blair, have been of exceptional value and impact.
Awards
This award specifically recognizes individuals who exemplify the compassionate nature of the physical therapy profession by exhibiting a distinguished commitment toward philanthropic initiatives, raising public awareness on key societal issues, and demonstrating how physical therapy can be applied to address these issues.
Awards
This award honors an individual held in high regard by their peers for distinguished leadership and significant contributions to the physical therapy profession and the association.
Publications Awards
Awards
This award acknowledges an individual physical therapist who has made significant contributions to the literature in physical therapy or in other health care disciplines in the areas of theory, practice, foundational or clinical research, education, and administration.
Awards
This award recognizes an author or team whose published work in PTJ: Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal presents innovative study or a theoretical model and discussion of its impact on future clinical practice or physical therapy research.
Awards
This award recognizes an author or team whose research and discussion published in the association's journal, PTJ: Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal, has made a measurable contribution to the knowledge base of physical therapy.
Awards
This award recognizes a member who has demonstrated superior writing skills in one or more articles published in Physical Therapy, and who has collaborated with or encouraged others to make similar contributions to PTJ: Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal.
Awards
This award honors an author or team whose published study in PTJ: Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal presents novel and innovative research related to patient care and advances clinical science as it pertains to the physical therapy profession.
Research Awards
Awards
The Eugene Michels New Investigator Award acknowledges outstanding new investigators who have demonstrated a commitment to research relevant to physical therapy.
Awards
This award acknowledges an individual who has made significant contributions to physical therapy through excellence in research.
Additional Awards
Awards
This award is presented to an APTA member who has made significant contributions to APTA's federal government affairs efforts and has shown exemplary leadership in furthering the association's objectives.
Awards
This award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated distinctive support for the physical therapy profession at a national level.
This award recognizes and rewards component leaders in the area of state legislative leadership who bring increased awareness and involvement to state legislative issues and who achieve success in state legislative issues that strengthen the practice of physical therapy.
Scholarships
Awards
This award recognizes students within 12 months of completing all requirements for graduation who exhibit superior scholastic ability and potential for future professional contribution.
Awards
This award recognizes physical therapy students, and faculty members who are pursuing post-professional doctoral degrees, for their professional character and academic excellence.
This award recognizes and facilitates the diversity of our society in the profession of physical therapy. The award is an opportunity to increase the diversity of the physical therapy profession as well as foster inclusion and belongingness in the profession.