2019 award recipients

The winners of our 2019 awards

Anne Moseley giving a speech on stage

Anne Moseley
Mildred Elson Award

Anne Moseley

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Anne Moseley giving a speech on stage
Mildred Elson Award

Anne has made outstanding contributions to the physiotherapy profession as a clinician, teacher, and researcher.

Her most significant contribution has been her leadership and commitment to the promotion of evidence-based physiotherapy through the Physiotherapy Evidence Database or PEDro, a freely-available database of over 43,000 randomised trials, systematic reviews and practice guidelines evaluating the effects of physiotherapy interventions. Through her leadership of PEDro, she has fundamentally changed the way physiotherapy is practised internationally and positively influenced the health of millions of people worldwide.

Anne co-founded PEDro in 1999, when the term ‘evidence-based practice’ was in its infancy. Over the past 20 years PEDro has grown into the pre-eminent evidence resource for the global physiotherapy community. In this time physiotherapists have performed 22 million PEDro searches. While PEDro began in Australia, in 2018 it was used to answer over 2.6 million questions posed by people from 213 countries and territories (only 7% of searches were from Australia).

PEDro is an exemplar case of what is possible through collaboration. With the vision that PEDro should be freely-available and have global reach, Anne and the team guiding PEDro brokered support from like-minded industry partners. To support users who speak languages other than English, the PEDro website and training videos have been translated into 12 languages. Anne’s passion and enthusiasm for PEDro is infectious and she has attracted a large number of volunteers from around the world who help with translations and rating trials, principally on a voluntary basis.

Anne is an associate professor in the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health in the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney. While the focus of her work is on PEDro, her clinical research has evaluated the effects of rehabilitation interventions for people with neurotrauma or orthopaedic trauma (107 peer-reviewed publications). She has supervised 21 research students to completion.

Lorena Enebral Perez

Lorena Enebral Pérez
Humanitarian Service Award

Lorena Enebral Pérez

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Lorena Enebral Perez
Humanitarian Service Award

Lorena was a Spanish physiotherapist who had an impressive and outstanding commitment to the patients and people she worked with in low-resourced countries.

After working with Spanish NGOs for a few years, she joined the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2015 and had worked as a humanitarian aid worker in Ethiopia, Malawi, the Sahara, and Tanzania. In 2016 she began working in Afghanistan, where her main role was to support and develop services for children with cerebral palsy.

In September 2017, while working as a physiotherapist in Mazar-i-Sharif, Lorena was fatally shot by a service user of the ICRC physical rehabilitation centre.

Lorena’s colleagues at ICRC remember her with affection as ‘energetic and full of laughter… a skilled and caring physiotherapist who assisted patients – especially children.’ Her colleagues described her having a wide smile and radiant attitude, a professional dedicated to her job and her patients.

Jonathon Kruger, World Physiotherapy Chief Executive Officer, said: ‘It is incomprehensible that a physiotherapist could be shot and killed for simply doing her job. However, the reality is that health workers face a high risk of violence all over the world.’

Daniel Wappenstein Deller holding his Humanitarian Service Award

Daniel Wappenstein Deller
Humanitarian Service Award

Daniel Wappenstein Deller

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Daniel Wappenstein Deller holding his Humanitarian Service Award
Humanitarian Service Award

Daniel is passionate about physiotherapy and its links with social sciences and health.

He is the president of the Ecuadorian Society of Physiotherapy and the coordinator of the project, humanitarian support in physiotherapy earthquake Ecuador 16A.

Daniel is the general director and owner of the Center for Physical Therapy and Preventive Health in Quito (KINETIKO), and a university teacher of pre- and post-graduate physiotherapy for more than 25 years.

The philosophical basis of his ideas is to enhance the coherence between speech and action. Daniel argues ‘almost everyone says the same, but we do not do what we say’, and is critical of the hegemonic medical model that places people as ignorant of their own body while empowering health agents about the emotional and physical conditions of the other with no respect.

To help break this dynamic, Daniel tries to achieve the greatest involvement and real commitment of all health professionals, particularly physiotherapists, to improve health systems and to promote the wellbeing in its broadest sense, where respect, equity, solidarity and coherence are enhanced.

Christina H Opava

Christina H Opava
Leadership in Rehabilitation Award

Christina H Opava

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Christina H Opava
Leadership in Rehabilitation Award

Christina is a registered physiotherapist, specialised in physiotherapy in rheumatology. She holds a joint position as full professor at Karolinska Institutet, and Karolinska University Hospital. She is the leader of a research team focusing on physical activity and health in rheumatic disease, the director of the strategic research area health care science at Karolinska Institutet/Umeå University and a foreign adjunct professor at Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam College of Physiotherapy, India.

She is a pioneer in the field of physiotherapy and rheumatology, and her career includes clinical work, teaching, research, and voluntary work.

Christina advocates for the dissemination and implementation of best practice physiotherapy for people with rheumatic conditions with international multidisciplinary scientific audiences, students, health care providers, and people with rheumatic conditions. She also disseminates her work in national guidelines, scientific papers, text books, and in the media.

Her contribution to the professional advancement of physiotherapy is demonstrated through honorary membership of the European League Against Rheumatism, the Ann Kunkel Advocacy Award, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals.

Brenda J Myers

Brenda J Myers
International Service Award – advocacy

Brenda J Myers

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Brenda J Myers
International Service Award – advocacy

Brenda was World Physiotherapy Secretary General from 1995 to 2016. During this period, World Physiotherapy consolidated its position as the international body representing the physiotherapy profession, through the expansion of membership across its five regions, adoption of the first international description of physiotherapy, and the development of a range of internationally agreed policy and position statements on education and practice matters. World Physiotherapy was also admitted as the fifth member of the World Health Professions Alliance, a recognition that World Physiotherapy’s presence could add strength to the collective voice of health professions.

Brenda’s first experience of World Physiotherapy was as an observer at the General Meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1978. This experience kindled an interest in World Physiotherapy and its potential to support the growth of the profession. As a member, then chair, of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association’s (CPA) international affairs committee, Brenda increased her involvement with World Physiotherapy. From 1987-1995 Brenda was Executive Director of the CPA. CPA was a founding member of World Physiotherapy and, in 1990, it hosted the founding meeting of the North American Caribbean Region of World Physiotherapy.

Sarah Bazin

Sarah Bazin
International Service Award – advocacy

Sarah Bazin

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Sarah Bazin
International Service Award – advocacy

Sarah is the immediate past chair of the World Physiotherapy Europe region and a former chair of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). Awarded a Fellowship of the CSP in 2007, she received an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list in 2008 for services to physiotherapy and healthcare in the West Midlands, where she was the allied health professions and health care scientists leadership lead. With a National Health Service career spanning 40 years at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, she was therapy services manager and developed a world-class therapies service in the hospital trust.

Sarah was a member of the UK’s Department of Health self-referral project team, representing the CSP, and the physiotherapy service in her hospital trust was one of the six pilot sites in England. For 13 years Sarah chaired the CSP’s prescribing group, which worked to achieve independent prescribing rights for physiotherapists in the UK.

She is the president of the CSP’s leaders and managers of physiotherapy services occupational group, chair of the CSP’s electro-physical agents and diagnostic ultrasound network group, and a trustee and council member of the College of Medicine. She is the chair of trustees of Rosetta Life.

Aïcha Benyaich

Aïcha Benyaich
International Service Award – education

Aïcha Benyaich

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Aïcha Benyaich
International Service Award – education

Aïcha is a passionate humanitarian worker. Her physiotherapy career stems from 19 years working in Belgium and with non-profit organisations across the world. During her studies in public health, she developed a passion for global health, rehabilitation, and strengthening of national health systems in low and middle-income countries.

She joined Humanity & Inclusion in 2008, working for the post-emergency department in Goma, Haïti and Sri Lanka. In 2010 she joined the International Committee of the Red Cross where she has spent most of her humanitarian career, serving in Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Iraq, and Lebanon, where she is currently posted. Informed by her experience in countries affected by the impact of conflicts, she has worked to develop and improve the professional standards of the physical rehabilitation sector, particularly in education and the promotion of integrated physical rehabilitation in the health systems. Aïcha has cultivated and increased her knowledge with studies in health policies and workforce, and has enrolled in the MBA program of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland.

Alice Jones

Alice Jones
International Service Award – education

Alice Jones

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Alice Jones
International Service Award – education

Alice graduated as a physiotherapist in Hong Kong, and received intensive care training in Sheffield. She qualified MPhil (Hong Kong), MSc in education (University of Surrey), and PhD (University of Queensland).

Alice’s research interests include cardiopulmonary physiotherapy and physiotherapy education. Alice was admitted to the Australian College of Physiotherapists as a specialist in cardiopulmonary physiotherapy in 1995 and was appointed professor of physiotherapy at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2005. She is an honorary professor at the University of Sydney, University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and a director of physiotherapy at Kunming Medical University.

Alice is a visiting professor to Tongji University, Sichuan University, and Shanghai University of TCM. She is actively engaged in the development of the physiotherapy profession in China, contributing to the development of standardised guidelines for physiotherapy curricula and facilitating WCPT-compliant entry-level physiotherapy programmes. Alice mentors a number of Chinese universities, assisting with their entry-level physiotherapy programme development, providing advice on curriculum design, staff/student recruitment, departmental monitoring, and management committee structure.

Charlotte Häger

Charlotte Häger
International Service Award – education

Charlotte Häger

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Charlotte Häger
International Service Award – education

Charlotte is professor of physiotherapy and head of the U-motion laboratory at Umeå University, Sweden, and also conducts clinical service at the orthopaedic clinic of Umeå University Hospital. She has promoted education and research throughout her 35-year career, holding a number of positions with the Swedish Association of Physiotherapists and helping shape physiotherapy education in Sweden. She has shared her vision for excellence at national and international conferences and lectured or examined in several countries to promote physiotherapy education and development. She has been a member of the educational matters working group for the World Physiotherapy Europe region since 2004 and is a driving force for education, evidence-based physiotherapy, and research. Her expertise in neurology and musculoskeletal disorders is reflected in her research, and has resulted in more than 250 collaborative publications and presentations worldwide. She has taught and mentored hundreds of physiotherapists. Charlotte has presented at every World Physiotherapy Congress since 1991 and has served on national and international congress boards since 1989. Charlotte is currently chair of the congress planning committee for World Physiotherapy Congress 2019.

Gill Brook

Gill Brook
International Service Award – education

Gill Brook

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Gill Brook
International Service Award – education

Gill is a women’s health and pelvic physiotherapist from the UK. She has worked in this specialty for 32 years, primarily as a National Health Service clinician.

A workshop tutor for the UK group Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy, Gill recently retired as honorary lecturer and clinical tutor for the University of Bradford on their Masters programme. Since 1999 Gill has been an executive committee member of the World Physiotherapy subgroup, International Organization of Physical Therapists in Women’s Health, and has served as the subgroup’s president since 2015.

She has a particular interest in helping develop the specialty in countries where women’s health and pelvic physiotherapy does not exist or is in its infancy. She visits the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital regularly to support the team of Ethiopian physiotherapists and aides working locally, and to participate in the education of medical staff. Gill has also visited other projects and centres in Ethiopia and delivered a workshop in Nigeria. She has produced online lectures for the Foundation for International Urogynecological Assistance. In 2018, on behalf of the physiotherapy committee of the International Continence Society, Gill wrote a paper about physiotherapy for women who have suffered an obstetric fistula.

Guy Simoneau

Guy Simoneau
International Service Award – education

Guy Simoneau

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Guy Simoneau
International Service Award – education

Guy received his BS in physical therapy from the University of Montreal, MS in physical education/sports medicine from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and PhD in exercise and sport science/locomotion studies from the Pennsylvania State University. He has been a faculty member in the department of physical therapy at Marquette University since 1992.

His primary area of teaching is orthopaedic and sports physiotherapy, and he has published research articles and book chapters related to orthopaedic/sports physiotherapy and biomechanics. His teaching, service, and research has been recognised through several national awards from the American Physical Therapy Association, including Ron Peyton Award, Paris Distinguished Service Award, Lucy Blair Service Award, Chattanooga Research Award, Baethke/Carlin Teaching Award, Award for Excellence in Teaching of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy from the Orthopaedic Section, and Education Award.

Guy has lectured extensively around the world on orthopedic/sports physiotherapy practice and the research/publication process. In 2014, he completed a five-month Fulbright experience at the Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences in Dhulikhel, Nepal.

Hana I Alsobayel

Hana I Alsobayel
International Service Award – education

Hana I Alsobayel

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Hana I Alsobayel
International Service Award – education

Hana is an associate professor and consultant in physiotherapy at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, and adjunct lecturer at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Hana holds an MSc in rehabilitation therapy from Queen’s University in Canada, and a PhD in physiotherapy from King’s College London in the UK. For over 25 years, she has been involved in academia, teaching undergraduates and graduates, and conducting research.

She has been actively involved in the development of the physiotherapy profession through her involvement with the Saudi Physical Therapy Association. Hana is a founding member of the Saudi Physical Therapists in Women’s Health, and has been active in supporting physiotherapy in women’s health nationally and internationally. Hana holds senior management positions at King Saud University and Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, and is one of the kingdom’s women leaders in higher education. An active member of the Saudi Spine Society, Hana is a founding member of the Saudi Association of Health Professionals Education. She has participated in many national and international conferences and symposia, and presented awareness talks for people in Saudi Arabia.

Annalie Basson

Annalie Basson
International Service Award – management and administration

Annalie Basson

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Annalie Basson
International Service Award – management and administration

Annalie is a physiotherapist in private practice in Pretoria, South Africa. She is a clinician and has been working in private practice for the past 38 years. She completed her PhD in 2017 at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and teaches part-time.

She has been involved in the South African Orthopaedic Manipulative Physiotherapy Group (OMPTG) since 1988 and was the national chair for this group from 1998-2004. She currently serves on OMPTG’s group executive committee.

She has served as a committee member on PainSA and the Physiotherapy Pain Management Group. She served a 12-year term on the executive committee of the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists (IFOMPT), as treasurer from 2004-2008 and as president from 2008-2016. During her term as president the constitution was reviewed and a new strategic plan was developed.

She feels strongly about promoting evidence-based practice to improve patient outcomes. She has a passion for physiotherapy, in particular manual therapy.

Jennifer M Bottomley

Jennifer M Bottomley
International Service Award – management and administration

Jennifer M Bottomley

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Jennifer M Bottomley
International Service Award – management and administration

Jennifer has been an active member and leader of the International Organization of Physiotherapists working with Older People (IPTOP) since the formation of this World Physiotherapy subgroup, serving as the subgroup’s vice president and chair, and is the current IPTOP president. She is a regular attendee at World Physiotherapy conferences and has been a practicing physiotherapist since 1974.

Jennifer has a degree in physical therapy from the University of Winconsin-Madison, a Masters in physical therapy from MGH Institute of Health Professions, a doctoral degree in gerontology from the University of Massachusetts, and a second PhD in health service administration, legislation, and policy management with a specialty in gerontology from Union Institute & University.

She is an academic and clinical educator, teaching throughout the US and overseas. Jennifer is an associate professor at Simmons University and an adjunct professor at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She serves on several federal advisory boards for Medicare and the White House Advisory Panel for Health Care Reform in the US.

She practices in homeless shelters on a pro bono basis for the Committee to End Elder Homelessness/HEARTH in Boston and is on the board of directors for HEARTH.

Shunsuke Kudo

Shunsuke Kudo
International Service Award – practice

Shunsuke Kudo

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Shunsuke Kudo
International Service Award – practice

Shunsuke has devoted four decades of his life to physiotherapy, education, and the practical development of the profession. This includes 11 years working in special needs education with children with disabilities. He has worked for Tokyo Metropolitan Rehabilitation Center for the Physically and Mentally Handicapped, 1973-1981; Tokyo Metropolitan School for Special Needs Education, 1981-1992; College of Allied Medical Science Akita University, 1992-2003; Akita University Graduate School of Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, 2003-2017.

His remarkable contribution to the development of community-based rehabilitation, particularly in developing Asian countries, is noteworthy. In addition, he has immensely contributed to the improvement in the quality of education for physiotherapists, technology development, and promotion of disaster rehabilitation activities in Japan.

He has played an important role in the development of the national and international physiotherapy profession.