Dr. Emmanuel John elected to ACAPT Board American Council of Academic Physical Therapy welcomes Chapman's DPT chair

May 3, 2018

Department of Physical Therapy program chair Dr. Emmanuel John has been elected secretary to the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT), effective May 1, 2018. The ACAPT represents all accredited Physical Therapy (PT) Education programs in the country, currently 242 DPT Programs. This new appointment brings another layer of prestige to his already impressive career.

“This is a great honor to be so recognized by my peers, many of whom have been in PT Education leadership for decades. My appointment to the BOD of ACAPT will further improve the visibility, and the rising national profile of Chapman University’s DPT program. For a Chair/Program Director of < 3 years’ experience to be appointed to the ACAPT Board is considered by many colleagues as remarkable and unusual, given that most of the BOD members include high-profile names in PT Education with decades of academic leadership experience. Some of the BOD members have been Chairs/Program Directors for decades, others are Associate Deans, Deans, an Interim Provost, as well as a Past President of the American Physical Therapy Association” says Dr. John.

He earned his Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria, his Doctor of Physical Therapy from Alabama State University, his Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Kansas Medical Center and an MBA from Louisiana State University, Shreveport. Prior to becoming the chair of Chapman’s DPT program, Dr. John served as the Director of the Motor Control and Neuromuscular Performance Laboratory at both Howard University’s and Radford University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy programs. Most recently, as an Associate Professor of Physical Therapy he held the position as Director of Research, School of Physical Therapy, Touro University Nevada.

Dr. John’s research spans four areas: effects of age, gender, neurological lesions on the sense of motor effort; effects of virtual reality rehabilitation and robotic rehabilitation interventions on sense of motor efforts; effects of discharge destinations and socioeconomic factors on motor function recovery after stroke; and, the impact of brain-drain on physical therapy education in developing countries.