Carole B. Lewis, DPT, GCS, GTC, MSG, PhD, FAPTA, a private practitioner and consulting clinical specialist for Pivot Physical Therapy, has received the highest honor bestowed by the American Physical Therapy Association – the Mary McMillan Lecturer Award. This tribute is conferred on one therapist each year who has made distinguished, far reaching, publicly visible, continuous, and enduring contributions to the profession of physical therapy.
Dr. Lewis received her two Master’s degrees in Health Care Management and Gerontology from the University of Southern California. In 1983 she received a PhD in Health Education from the University of Maryland and in 2007, she received her DPT from Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Professions. She currently serves on the Medical Faculty at George Washington University as an adjunct professor in the Department of Geriatrics and is a Clinical Professor at the University of Maryland.
Dr. Lewis has extensive publications in the field of aging. She has authored over 400 articles and 30 books. She has also been the editor of the award winning international journal: Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, for over 30 years. She is the founder and president of GREAT Seminars and Books and GREAT Seminars Online, companies devoted to providing continuing education that is exciting, engaging, interactive and based on the latest research. Dr. Lewis has lectured extensively (over 400 lecture to date) on the topic of geriatric rehabilitation. She has spoken in 49 states and 11 countries.
Her accomplishments include receiving the APTA’s Lucy Blair Service Award, the Section on Geriatrics’ highest honor, the Joan Mills Award, and the Section on Geriatrics’ Clinical Excellence Award. She is a Catherine Worthingham Fellow for the APTA and a Fulbright Scholar. The Gerontological Society of America honored Dr. Lewis by selecting her to be the 2014 recipient of the Excellence in Rehabilitation of Aging Persons Award.
Recipients of the McMillan Lecture Award share their achievements and ideas with members in a 45-minute talk presented at the APTA’s annual conference (Nashville, June 2016), which is then published in the November issue of The Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association.
The topics chosen by those honored reflect the issues facing the profession. The content of the lecture is related to the contributions that the recipient has made to the profession of physical therapy. Tentatively, her title is “ Our Future Selves: Unexpected Opportunities.”