When I graduated with my physical therapy degree in 1988, cancer was the furthest thing from my mind. Yet in the early 1990s, a family member was diagnosed with cancer, and my eyes were thrust opened to a whole new world.

You know how we all see the world through the eyes of our own profession? As a physical therapist watching someone exposed to surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, I didn't see tumor markers, cell counts or surgical margins. As a PT, I saw fatigue, pain, immobility, and progressive weakness. I saw the struggle to maintain normalcy, function, and a sense of self. 

Over time, I went from treating a few patients with cancer to opening a physical therapy private practice dedicated solely to people with cancer, to ultimately building the country’s largest integrated cancer rehabilitation program at one of the country’s leading cancer programs.

To help rehabilitation therapists, cancer practitioners, and cancer centers learn and implement best practices in cancer rehabilitation, I founded the WCRA in 2015.