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 and confirmed at the general meeting.
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.
Yasushi UchiyamaRegional executive board member
Yasushi Uchiyama
CloseRegional executive board member
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.
Jean Damascene GasherebukaRegional executive board member
Jean Damascene Gasherebuka
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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.
Karim Martina Alvis GómezRegional executive board member
Karim Martina Alvis Gómez
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Karim is passionate about physiotherapist education and has been involved in teaching physiotherapy students for more than 30 years. Her research interests include mechanics and neuromechanics of human movement; disability, rehabilitation, and social inclusion; professional development, quality assurance of professional practice and education.
A former president and vice president of the Colombian Association of Physiotherapy, she is the current vice president of the Colombian College of Physiotherapists, and the current director of the Latin American Center for the Development of Physiotherapy and Kinesiology.
Stacy de GaleRegional executive board member
Stacy de Gale
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Stacy is an active clinician, advocate and lecturer with 19 years’ experience as a physiotherapist. She is the owner and manager of Back In Motion Physical Therapy Services, Trinidad. She served as chair of our North America Caribbean region for eight years. She was also elected as chairperson of the Physiotherapists’ Board of Trinidad and Tobago, president, secretary and public relations officer of the Physiotherapy Association of Trinidad and Tobago, each for two terms.
She is an active advocate for improving public sector physiotherapy and rehabilitative services in the English-speaking Caribbean. Her education in the Caribbean and North America, years of mentoring physiotherapy students throughout the region, and networking with physiotherapists globally; has enhanced her desire to delve into global physiotherapy and her drive to create a global physiotherapy village.
Nirit RotemRegional executive board member
Nirit Rotem
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Nirit is the head of the physiotherapy department at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel, and an educator, researcher and clinician.
She is a founding member of the Israeli Physiotherapy Society (IPTS), and served as IPTS chair from 2006 to 2014. During her time in office, Nirit led a campaign for legislation that solidified the legal and regulatory status of health professions and took an active part in a successful petition to the Supreme Court to regulate the number of physiotherapy students in accordance to quality demands.
Since 2006, Nirit has been involved with World Physiotherapy's Europe region, including the professional issues working group and the cancer thematic working group.
Nirit is the first and only physiotherapist in Israel's national committee for the advancement of women in science and technology and in the national council for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. She is committed to advocating for rehabilitation as a first choice following sport injuries, and her current clinical educational and research focus is on advancing physiotherapy in cancer care.
Alia AlghwiriGeneral executive board member
Alia Alghwiri
CloseGeneral executive board member
Alia is a professor and founding chair of the department of physiotherapy at the Applied Science Private University in Jordan. She has been teaching for 12 years and became the first full professor in Jordan in 2019. Alia is a former president of the Jordanian Physiotherapy Society and the current general secretary of the Jordanian Athletic Therapy Association. She served as a member of congress programme committee for our congress in Geneva in 2019.
Her research interest focuses on the brain and how it affects physical and mental health. She has published around 40 articles and book chapters in the areas of vestibular disorders, multiple sclerosis, stroke, diabetes mellitus, ICF, and virtual reality. Alia has also been involved in two Erasmus plus projects in the areas of physiotherapy higher education and the issue of disability.
Alia has launched several initiatives and community programmes to raise awareness of the role of physiotherapy on disease prevention and physiotherapy management. These programmes have served people and refugees in the outskirts of Jordan, and benefited thousands of people who need medical advice and/or assistive devices.
