Dr. Jo Armour Smith, Assistant Professor Department of Physical Therapy

Dr. Jo Armour Smith, an assistant professor of physical therapy since 2015, has received the Margaret L. Moore Award for Outstanding New Academic Faculty Member, by the American Physical Therapy Association.  This highly prestigious national award is given annually to one physical therapy faculty member in the United States.  The award recognizes exceptional merit in research, teaching, and service to physical therapy.  Dr. Alison McKenzie, professor of physical therapy, nominated Dr. Smith.  This nomination was reviewed by the Board of Directors of the APTA, and based on the overall merits of the nomination, selected Dr. Smith as the 2017 recipient.   Dr. Armour Smith commented that being a recipient of this award, “is a huge honor and I was even more excited to be nominated by Alison. The fact that she thought I was worth nominating was beyond my expectations”. Crean College Dean Janeen Hill noted that this is an outstanding achievement for Dr. Smith, the Department of Physical Therapy, and Crean College.”

DPT Students utilizing balance machines in DPT lab for research

The winner of this award receives $1,500 at the next APTA Conference and Exposition where an official announcement and presentation will be made about Dr. Jo Armour Smith. With this award, Dr. Armour Smith is excited to continue her research and working with students. She currently works with a few group of students who are looking into different aspects of back pain research. One group of students that she is mentoring is studying back pain in break dancers, a population that has not been studied in detail. A second group that Dr. Armour Smith advises is investigating factors that predict back pain in young adults.  With this award, Dr. Jo Armour Smith will be able to continue providingresearch opportunities for DPT students.

When asked to comment on the meaning of this award to her, she said, “when I saw people who had been awarded this in the past and I recognized the names of people who had helped me in my career and shaped my research field to be what it is today, I became extremely excited and grateful to have been considered a part of this group. Hopefully this will put Chapman on the map in the Physical Therapy world.”

Congratulations Dr. Jo Armour Smith on such a prestigious accomplishment!