Page 3 - OPTA Access Spring 2017

OPTA | March 2017 | 3
OPTA Executive Committee
Anthony DiFilippo, PT,DPT,MEd,OCS,CSCS
President
Tonya Apke, PT, DPT, OCS
President Elect
Christine Schulte, PT, MBA
Vice President
Kim Doolittle-Koran, PT, DPT, OCS
Treasurer
Kristin Marks, PT, DPT, JD
Secretary
Scott Euype, PT, DPT, MHS, OCS
Director I
Jessica Iams, PT, DPT
Director II
Rob Dunham, PT, DPT
Director III
Association Staff
Victoria L Gresh, CAE
Executive Director
Marie Ruskin
Member Engagement Specialist
Lori Pef y
Conference and Education Manager
Vicky Humphrey, PT, MS
CE Reviewer
Kristin Blatt, PT
CE Reviewer
The Ohio Physical Therapy Association newsletter is published biannually by the Ohio Physical Therapy Association Inc 1085 Beecher Crossing North, Suite B, Gahanna, OH 43230-4563
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Presid Mess
ent’s age
Anthony DiFilippo, PT, DPT, MEd, OCS, CSCS
Looking Back on OPTA Accomplishments
It has been my absolute honor and pleasure to serve as your president over the past six years I have been fortunate to have worked with such incredible leaders in our association During my tenure, there have been signi cant changes and accomplishments affecting our association and profession We have achieved signi cant success in the areas of: public relations, legislative efforts, nancial stability , annual conference participation, and staf ng. In my rst year,
the OPTA took on an aggressive Public Relations campaign We targeted the public with the intent to educate them regarding the bene ts of early intervention services and how to access physical therapy services under direct access in our state We did this mainly through our radio campaign, tabbed the “Good Health Minute ” This earned the OPTA the OSAE Public Relation’s Award In recognition for our successful public relations campaign and other front line ideas, the OPTA was awarded it’s rst ever APTA Outstanding Chapter of the Year Award.
We had several challenges over the years, with one of them being the OPTA opposing bills that would consolidate our licensing board It is very important for the profession of physical therapy to have an independent licensing board, and it is vital that we have people within our profession making rules that affect how we can practice This situation returned during the Lame Duck session this past year Once again, the legislation stalled Grassroots efforts by our members to educate legislators was key to this bill not proceeding and our licensing board remaining independent and intact
Looking back, one pivotal moment was interviewing for the replacement for the OPTA Executive Director, Shane Yates. Shane worked his way up from within the OPTA and was highly regarded amongst his peers Shane worked tirelessly for the OPTA and served us well Fortunately, the timing was right to hire Victoria Gresh
as his replacement after a national search was performed Victoria brought years
of knowledge and experience running professional associations She has been integral in creating processes and helping mold the OPTA for long term success
Moreover, we have rebranded and given a new look to our OPTA Annual Conference We have moved away from the old-style business meeting and introduced new technology, bringing energy to further engage members We examined barriers that existed during conferences and determined what could
be improved upon which led us to intermingle students and professionals during programming This has increased networking opportunities during the conference and has been well received
Additionally, we redirected our public relations campaign to focus on social media OPTA has been very active in this area and has translated into increased traf c to our consumer web portal. Another opportunity that presented itself was celebrating 10 Years of Direct Access to physical therapy services. We created a video that we distributed via social media to further increase consumer awareness
With all the areas of success that the OPTA has achieved, we were awarded with an unprecedented second APTA Outstanding Chapter of the Year award in 2015 Our Board of Directors along with the OPTA staff work tirelessly to improve our association and thus advance our profession continued on page 4