DPT Business School history

In 1932, Doctor George G. Deaver was appointed Medical Adviser and Educational Director of the curriculum.

According to the 1942 Annual Report of the Department to the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Medical Association, William Bierman, MD was the Executive Technician in charge of student training and George Deaver, MD was the physician directing training in physical therapy.

In 1946 Elizabeth C. Addoms, who had previously been a teaching fellow, was appointed as Physical Therapy Program Director; Doctor Deaver continued on as Medical Director of the program.

The Division of Physical Therapy first was established in the late 1960’s as the Graduate Program in Physical Therapy, a component of the newly founded Division of Allied Health, School of Medicine.

In 1967, the Physical Therapy Program became a unit of the newly established Division of Rehabilitation Education of the School of Education.

Doctor Deaver, who had been an important figure in the development of the NYU Physical Therapy Program, retired from the University in 1969.

On July 1, 1970 the Department received approval from New York State to offer a PhD degree program in physical therapy.

In 1975, the Department established the Elizabeth C. Addoms Award for Excellence to honor the recently retired Beth Addoms.

In 1977 with the help of Marilyn Moffat and her husband Robert Salant, the Department established its own scholarship program to provide supplemental funds to senior-year students with proven needs and academic capability.

In February of 1984, thanks in part to a grant from United Cerebral Palsy, the Physical Therapy Department implemented a masters degree program in developmental disabilities.

The first professional doctoral students were admitted in July 1998 to the Physical Therapy DPS Program that was directed by Doctor Marilyn Moffat.

The state granted administrative approval to change the degree to the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) in April 1999.

The MPT program continued until September 2001, when the professional degree program in Physical Therapy officially became a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree program.

In Fall of 2007, a joint DPT-MPH degree (Doctor of Physical Therapy and Masters of Public Health), a joint collaboration between the School of Medicine and the Rollins School of Public Health was approved by Emory University Board of Trustees.