Charge

The Awards Committee subcommittees will apply the criteria established by the Board of Directors for each association honor and award to each nomination received for each award under its purview and make recommendations to the board regarding award recipients.

The Board's determined charge for each Awards Committee subcommittee is:

• Review award nominations* received for each award that falls under the subcommittee's purview against the applicable criteria established by the Board.
• Recommend potential recipients to the Board for final approval.**
• When requested by the Board, review and make recommendations on proposals for new awards applicable to the subcommittee's award category and provide feedback on the utility of the criteria and measurement tools for existing awards within the subcommittee's purview.
• Submit a report to the Board on an annual basis.

*A nomination is the packet of materials submitted to APTA in response to the association's annual call for nominations for its honors and awards program. Each subcommittee works independently to review the received nominations that fall within its purview.

**A recommendation is what each Awards Committee subcommittee brings to the Board after it has completed its review of all nominations for each honor or award under its purview. It is the Board's responsibility to either accept or reject recommendations.

Committee Specific Charge

This subcommittee will review nominations received for the honor of Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association, the association’s highest membership category. This honor serves as inspiration for all physical therapists to attain professional excellence. This honor is eligible to APTA physical therapist members or life member physical therapists who have demonstrated unwavering efforts to advance the physical therapy profession for more than 15 years, prior to the time of nomination.

All APTA appointed groups will conduct their work with APTA's Commitment to Increasing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in mind and in the context of (1) APTA's Mission, Vision, Strategic Plan and House of Delegates and Board of Directors adopted positions and policies; and (2) the potential for their work to have implications related to physical therapist assistants, women, diversity, and risk management.

Size of Appointed Group

This subcommittee has five members.

This Board-appointed group does not have a Board chair in order to avoid any conflict of interest or impropriety because the Board is the body that approves the association’s honors and awards recipients. In addition, the group comprises eight subcommittees, and due to the independent nature of this group's work it will not have a single chair overseeing the group. Rather, staff assists each subcommittee to identify a member volunteer to serve as the lead for the respective subcommittee and each lead works with the staff liaisons as needed to manage the work of their particular subcommittee.

The role of the Board liaison is to serve as a conduit between the Board and the Awards Committee and assist in special projects such as the review and revision of awards policies. The Board liaison does not participate in subcommittee conversations related to nominees, and does not review the nominations received for each award.

The APTA president serves as ex-officio, as outlined in the APTA bylaws. In the role as ex-officio to the Awards Committee the APTA president may take part in certain committee functions but does not review, propose, or participate in subcommittee conversations related to nominees for awards.

View Committee and Appointed Group Rosters

Term of Appointees

Individuals appointed to this committee shall serve a two-year term. No individual shall serve more than two consecutive terms.

Meetings

This subcommittee meets approximately twice per year via conference call in the winter and spring.

Additional Information

For additional information regarding this and other APTA volunteer opportunities, email appointedgrouppool@apta.org.