Our executive board
World Physiotherapy's executive board is elected by member organisations and consists of the president, vice president and a member from each region. The president and vice president are elected at the World Physiotherapy general meeting, which is held every four years. Regional executive board members are elected by their region.
Michel LandryPresident
Michel Landry
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Mike has more than 30 years of experience as a physiotherapist. He is the founder of an EdTech startup company, and is a professor at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Bergen, Norway) where he teaches in healthy aging and rehabilitation. His research focuses on global health, health policy, workforce and artificial intelligence. Prior to this, he was the chair of the department of physical therapy and associate dean for global health at Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States, and also spent a decade as division chief of the doctor of physical therapy division at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina in the United States.
He has been a rehabilitation leader in global humanitarian aid organisations for several decades. He began as a project manager with the International Centre for the Advancement of Community Based Rehabilitation (ICACBR) at Queen's University, where he participated in implementing the war victims rehabilitation project. He has collaborated and led humanitarian initiatives in settings including the Balkans, South Asia, the Caribbean. Following the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, he worked as a policy consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) field office in Kathmandu and the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
Mike has served as president of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association and as a mentor for World Physiotherapy's SUDA project in West Africa, a multi-year USAid funded initiative to strengthen physiotherapy associations and education programmes in Mali, Niger, and Senegal.
He was elected as World Physiotherapy president in 2023.
Suh-Fang JengVice president
Suh-Fang Jeng
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Suh-Fang is a professor in the school and graduate institute of physical therapy, National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan, where she was a chair of the physical therapy school (2007-2013) and associate dean of the medical college (2014-2019). She holds a doctor of science in applied kinesiology, Boston University, US, and a master's in science in physical therapy, Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions, US.
She is a past president and a past secretary general of Taiwan Physical Therapy Association (TPTA) and a co-chair of the scientific committee (2018-2022) for the 8th Asia Western Pacific congress in 2022. Suh-Fang has also served in a variety of roles for World Physiotherapy, including chair of the Asia Western Pacific region (2017-2023), COVID-19 taskforce on education (2020-2021), and bursary (2019 and 2021) and award (2015) committees.
Suh-Fang was elected as World Physiotherapy vice president in 2023.
Jean Damascene GasherebukaRegional executive board member
Jean Damascene Gasherebuka
CloseRegional executive board member
Jean is a highly motivated and experienced physiotherapy clinician and educator from Rwanda, in the Eastern part of Africa. He graduated from Wits University in Johannesburg (BSc and MSc PT, 2007) and is a manual therapy expert (OMT 1, 2006). Since 2007, he has been working as a part-time lecturer and clinical supervisor in the physiotherapy department at the University of Rwanda. He is the chairperson of the Rwanda Allied Professions Regulatory Body (2013-2019).
Jean has held many leadership positions at national and international levels, including president of the Association of Rwandan Physiotherapy, secretary and chair of our Africa region (2008-2014). He has also participated in a number of our technical committees and was one of the mentors involved with our SUDA project.
Yasushi UchiyamaRegional executive board member
Yasushi Uchiyama
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Yasushi is a professor in the department of physical therapy, graduate school of medicine in Nagoya University, Japan. He holds a Master and PhD in engineering. His current research and education focuses mainly on postural control, clinical reasoning for neurological disorders, robotics, and transdisciplinary education. He has published over 300 papers in journals and books. He has been involved with the Japanese Physical Therapy Association as an executive board member for 18 years and has been the association’s vice president for 12 years.
From 2003-2011 he also served on executive committees for our AWP region. He has been an expert committee member in the ministry of health, labour and welfare, ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology. He is also an expert of Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for developing countries.
Constance SchleglRegional executive board member
Constance Schlegl
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Constance is a consultant, trainer, and educator in the field of health promotion and prevention.
She has been the president of Physio Austria since 2018, leading the association through advocacy campaigns and discussions with key stakeholders and successfully negotiated the renewal of the physiotherapy professional law in Austria in 2024.
Constance has sat on World Physiotherapy’s appeals and awards committees, and been part of World Physiotherapy Europe region’s EU Matters working group since 2018.
She holds a master’s in public health, from the Medical University of Vienna, and has worked in disease management programmes (eg integrated care, primary health care) and other health-related topics (eg e-health strategy, guidelines development, health care planning) for a number of years.
Sibyl EdwardRegional executive board member
Sibyl Edward
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Sibyl is a clinician with 35 years' experience of practicing in hospital settings, and 12 years' experience as an educator.
She acquired her undergraduate qualifications in 1990 at the University of the West Indies School of Physical Therapy in Mona, Jamaica, and a DPT from Utica University in 2012.
Sibyl is one of the founding members of the Physiotherapy Association of Saint Lucia Inc., and has served as the association’s president and secretary, and is the current treasurer. During her time as president, she led the association through a governance review to re-examine and streamline its bylaws and constitution, and the development of practice standards. She also secured stronger representation for the association by accepting a position as an ad hoc committee member for the Allied Health Council of St Lucia.
She has served as vice chair and chair for World Physiotherapy’s North America Caribbean region executive committee, and a former member of World Physiotherapy’s membership committee.
Oscar RonzioRegional executive board member
Oscar Ronzio
CloseRegional executive board member
Oscar qualified as a physiotherapist and holds a PhD in health sciences, with training completed in Argentina. His research focus on electrophysical agents (eg non-ionizing electromagnetic radiations, mechanical waves) and their biological effects, as well as sports injuries, particularly tendinopathies. He was among the pioneers to introduce ultrasound-guided techniques in Latin America.
Since 2002, Oscar has taught at undergraduate and graduate levels in several universities in Argentina and other countries/territories. He is an associate professor and researcher at Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche and head of the physiotherapy program at Universidad Maimónides, Argentina. He has led research projects, published over 30 scientific articles and multiple book chapters in different languages, and delivered more than 500 lectures, short courses, and conference presentations worldwide. In recent years, he has trained over 6,000 professionals in assessing and treating tendinopathies using low-cost resources, such as percutaneous microelectrolysis.
Oscar has served two terms as chair of World Physiotherapy’s South America region executive committee and is a former member of World Physiotherapy's membership committee.
He was a founding member and former vice president of the World Physiotherapy specialty group International Society of Electrophysical Agents in Physiotherapy (ISEAPT).
