A Decade of Dedication
The following is an excerpt from Alumni & Friends Magazine Winter 2025 issue. Read the full issue here.
UJ celebrates graduation of 10th Physical Therapy class.
“My favorite memories mostly involve graduation. The graduates have each worked so hard and been so dedicated, so seeing their families and friends cheer them on is just the best.”
– Dr. Tara Haj, Professor of Physical Therapy and Director of Clinical Education
On a Wednesday morning in May 2015, President Bob Badal’s cabinet met in the Liechty Center-Taber Hall conference room for our weekly meeting. One of the primary agenda points for the day was to recap the recent commencement and make notes for changes for the following year.
At one point in the conversation, I turned to President Badal and asked the question: “What are the DPT students wearing next year?” The silence in the room answered the question. We didn’t know, but we knew we were going to get to play fashion designer and create UJ’s doctoral regalia.
Less than twelve months later, Hunter Anshutz ’16 walked across the stage at the Jamestown Civic Center in a stunning black robe emblazoned with the university seal and orange piping. He was hooded with a four-foot-long black hood with Jimmie orange and black lining on the inside and physical therapy’s teal felt border on the outside.
In that moment, Hunter became the first Jimmie to ever receive a doctoral degree from the University of Jamestown.
In May of 2025, 15 years after the UJ administration first entertained the idea of starting a DPT program, UJPT will graduate its tenth class, and 36 new Jimmie PTs will join the 303 alumni who were awarded the degree of Doctor of Physical Therapy before them.
Graduation provides an opportunity for reflection, and having our tenth graduating class seems like an appropriate time to look back at what makes UJPT special and what it has done for the region, profession, and university since its founding.
What makes the program special?
Starting a new academic program is a challenge because everything is new, and you can’t rely on “the way things have always been done” to answer any questions for you. The advantage of starting a new program is that everything is new, and you can be innovative in what you create.
In July 2013, UJPT was awarded candidacy status with their accreditation.
“Now all we have to do, is to do what we said we would do,” were the words that founding program director Dr. Nancy Nuzzo said to the new faculty.
The building still sounded like a construction zone, and they didn’t have any equipment yet, but the program was starting its journey.
Along with Dr. Nuzzo, UJPT was fortunate to have hired faculty members Drs. Phyllis Heyne-Lindholm, Mary Lee Leikas, Sara Voorhees, and Richard Zaruba, who embraced the opportunity to build a PT program from the ground up.
The result is a program that takes the best of what UJ does at the undergraduate level and brings it to doctoral-level education.
When asked about what makes UJPT special, Dr. Voorhees, who has served as the program director since 2017, provided a laundry list
of reasons:
“Our mission is to provide excellence in education. We have such a well-rounded program. We have a purposeful curriculum that teaches foundational knowledge, then builds via application, critical thinking, and problem solving, as content is advanced in higher level courses, creating students that excel clinically. We have interspersed clinical experiences that allow for early integration of classroom skills with clinical practice starting right after the first year of classes. We give students hands-on, experiential learning opportunities in pro bono clinicals and the Parkinson’s exercise class, while receiving expert guidance from our clinician faculty. We know we want to create well-rounded professionals, with not only skills in physical therapy, but in communication and leadership because those skills are also life skills.”
The effort to create a seamless transition from the classroom to the clinic does not go unnoticed by students and alumni.
“The transition from the classroom to the clinic was a breeze, which allowed me to learn many aspects of our profession quickly,” stated Brady Kalla, DPT, OCS ’21, a clinician at Total Balance Physical Therapy and Fitness in Fargo. “The program provided a rigorous, hands-on curriculum that emphasized both clinical expertise and offered exceptional examples of compassionate patient care.”
Dr. Voorhees also highlighted the importance of the faculty in making UJPT a special place for students.
“We have excellent faculty who are passionate about education, physical therapy, and developing clinicians who are thorough and knowledgeable, and who are also caring and compassionate. The faculty contributions to this program are amazing, and every one of them brings to the table exciting and forward-thinking ideas that continue to make this program grow and be excellent.”
UJPT’s Impact
Overstating the impact that UJPT has had on the region, the profession, and the university is difficult.
Community engagement is an important part of life at UJPT. Every year students and faculty serve dozens of patients from underserved populations in the pro bono clinic at Family HealthCare and volunteer with organizations like TNT Kid’s Fitness in Fargo.
In turn, the Fargo physical therapy community has recognized the impact of UJPT. The community has helped establish awards such as the Jeff Wold Award for Clinical Excellence—given to a student who demonstrates professionalism, compassion, and clinical excellence—and the annual Rough Rider Kiwanis Award for Community Service.
UJPT has sent 303 graduates into the world. Many of them have stayed in the region and are now meeting patients’ needs in our own backyard.
“The times I am especially grateful to have chosen UJPT come in the form of appreciative patients who have had successful outcomes and sometimes even from those who are still working towards their goal,” said Christopher Kjolhaug, DPT ’18, who works as a clinician at Red Lake Comprehensive Health in Red Lake, Minnesota. “They know that you care and are doing your very best as a clinician because that’s how you were trained.”
The work the faculty do to advance the profession has also not gone unnoticed. Faculty have published their research in leading journals, like the British Journal of Sport and Medicine, Journal of Physical Therapy Education, Physical Therapy, and The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, where their work is influencing the work of clinicians and other PT faculty.
Professors Mitch Wolden, Diana Palm, and Brittany Anderson have all received awards from the American Physical Therapy Association for their research. Dr. Wolden’s work was singled out in 2022 when he was recognized with the Stanford Award from the Journal of Physical Therapy Education for writing the article that contained the most influential educational ideas for the previous year.
Finally, as a university, UJPT was our first step into doctoral-level education, and our success there showed us that we can do doctoral education extremely well. UJPT faculty recognized a need for a Ph.D. program in clinical research. UJ now has four faculty members and 47 Ph.D. students conducting research on topics like Parkinson’s Disease, the early detection of cancer, and PTSD.
UJPT made it possible for us to launch the Doctor of Leadership program in 2024 and the healthcare program expansion that we are bringing to Phoenix, Arizona, in the coming years (stay tuned…).
Ten Graduating Classes Later
A decade after the first UJPT graduates walked across the Civic Center stage, it is hard to imagine the University of Jamestown without UJPT. The program has changed lives for the better, made a real difference in the Fargo community and surrounding area, and has left an indelible mark on who we are as a university.
Unlike Hunter Anshutz, Tara Jaeger, and the other 34 members of the “Pioneer Class” who got to blaze the trail for UJPT along with the faculty and staff, Anna Allen, Katelin Winter, and their 34 classmates in the Class of 2025 will be hooded on-campus in the Harold Newman Arena this May instead of the Civic Center.
But that won’t be the biggest difference between them and the first class. They are inheriting a legacy and will carry with them the responsibility of living up to the tradition of excellence the trailblazers who went before them have created. Fortunately, after three years spent under the guidance and watchful eyes of their faculty, we know they are up to the challenge.
The Seven Ages of Man
The mission of the University of Jamestown is to develop wholeness in all members of our community through the blending of the liberal arts with sound professional preparation in a Christian environment.
As UJPT was being developed, President Bob Badal, a theatre professor, commissioned UJ alumnus Brock Drenth ’05 to provide much of the artwork for the UJPT building. At President Badal’s encouragement, Brock created a series of drawings depicting the “seven ages of man” as described by Jaques in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, that hang in the hallway of the building.
The seven ages – starting with infancy and ending with the “second childhood” of old age – were chosen to be a constant reminder to students that physical therapists care for individuals at every stage of life.
Alumni recognize how the UJPT commitment to the whole person affects the way they practice their profession.
“I believe UJPT makes more than just PTs; it makes well-rounded, community-oriented medical professionals. You are taught how to treat patients as a whole person rather than just an ailment,” stated Mackenzie Lindquist Selliers, DPT ’19 who works at Majestic Pines Senior Living Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. “To do this, you have to get to know your patient, know what’s important to them and how to get them back in their community and achieving their goals.”
As the program has developed, the seven ages have become a metaphor for the lives of the faculty and students who support each other in good times and bad. The students, faculty, and staff have come together to celebrate the birth of new babies. They prayed together while children, spouses, and parents were suffering from serious medical issues. They celebrated their classmates’ marriages and their job offers. They mourned the loss of parents, grandparents, Professor Richard Zaruba, student Jessica Summer x’18, and alumnus Scott Mecham ’24 together.
Tara Jaeger, DPT ’16, who is now the owner and CEO of Recharge Physical Therapy and Wellness in Fargo, reflected on the support she received when she had a baby while a student in the program:
“I formed enduring relationships with both classmates and professors. When I welcomed my second child during the program, the faculty offered exceptional support, enabling me to continue my studies while caring for a newborn and another child at home.”
