Lift up your hands, Dr. Michelle Green told the graduating students. Place them on your head. The frontal lobe, the occipital lobe.

Now, place them on your heart, said Green, assistant program director and associate professor in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program (DPT) at Campbell University.

"Take just a moment to feel the gentle tap of your heart on your rib cage, the proof of life that has carried you through every success and challenge these last three years," said Green, a founding member of the DPT program and keynote speaker during the DPT convocation ceremony in the Hobson Performance Center on Dec. 12, when students received their teal hoods, representing the field of physical therapy.

The doctors officially graduated Dec. 13 in a campus-wide ceremony.

The convocation, which marks the culmination of the three-year program, included remarks from students and faculty, including Dr. Bradley Myers, director and professor for Campbell's DPT program, and Dr. Wesley D. Rich, associate dean for Health Sciences. The ceremony also featured the presentation of individual honors and awards, as well as remarks from class president and 2025 DPT graduate Everett Melcher.

"After (the graduation ceremony Dec. 13), most of our paths are scattered, but foundations we build here at Campbell will continue to unite us in our purpose," Melcher told his classmates.

Green is a board-certified clinical specialist in neurologic rehabilitation who has played no small role in the development and growth of Campbell's DPT program and its positive effects on the community.

What you take away from Campbell, she told the 44 members of the 2025 class, transcends the knowledge you gained in lectures and labs. Grades matter, of course. Skills taught, knowledge gained. But the difference you'll make in people's lives - in your own lives - is found in your hands, your head and your heart.

That all-important "difference."

Green reflected on a recent interview with a prospective student, who asked when artificial intelligence will one day replace hands-on physical therapy.

"It was bold, it was relevant," Green said of the question. "It was exactly the type of question that someone would ask who has not lived what you guys have lived these last three years, somebody who is not seeing the full potential of a physical therapist.

"My answer was firm - nope, absolutely not.

"The greatest asset of a physical therapist is not your knowledge of the post surgical protocol, the color of (resistance band) you chose, or measuring how far somebody walked," Green said.

"The real difference lives in what your hands, your head and your heart, qualities that no computer or algorithm will ever replicate. These are the things that set you apart. This program, the Campbell DPT program, was intentionally designed to cultivate the parts of a physical therapist that cannot be captured on a rubric or a final exam."

That intention, she said, has roots to the very beginning of Campbell's program, in 2014. Green talked about getting an evening call from Dr. Phillip H. Warren, who eventually persuaded her to learn more about the nascent program at Campbell.

They are going to do it differently, Warren told her about Campbell's vision for the new DPT program.

Differently.

"That word got my attention," Green said.

As other programs moved toward hybrid delivery, early specialization and heavier academic and research focus, Campbell's founding team built a PT program that was, indeed, different. Campbell's program, Green said, was built to prepare clinicians who could treat patients across systems, who could think across contexts, who could manage patients across their lifespans and adapt to the changing healthcare environment.

"They imagined a truly holistic approach that put the patient, every single patient, at the center of the story. That was a story I wanted to be part of. It was a story I wanted to help write, and write it, we did."

The program presented several awards as part of the convocation ceremony.

Phillip Werkheiser received the Adjunct Faculty Member of the Year Award, selected by the graduating class recognizing a member of the adjunct faculty who has made a strong impact on the growth and development of student physical therapists.

Awards presented to student doctors were:

• The Leadership Award to Everett Melcher
• The Dr. Angela Griffin Community Service Memorial Award to Erin Carter
• The Academic Excellence Award to Grayson Fowler and Julia Spangler
• The National Physical Therapy Student Honor Society Award to Paige Moir
• The Alumni Association Award to Megan Jackson

Melcher, of Meadow, North Carolina, said he chose to study physical therapy at Campbell for many reasons, including its commitment to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, or ICF, a framework Green said helped seal her decision to join the university. ICF, in short, helps therapists develop interventions centered around the patient, building on the osteopathic philosophy of considering the whole person, as compared to focusing on the disease.

"We really focus primarily on patient care versus research," said Melcher, who will work for the Veterans Affairs healthcare network in Fayetteville.

"We really put patients first here at Campbell," he said. "And honestly, now that I know … I wouldn't have picked anywhere else (to become a doctor of physical therapy). The professors are amazing. That's not something I could have known beforehand, but I'm glad that I do now, because I wouldn't want to go anywhere else.

"We get a lot of that hands-on time here, and I think that's what's really kind of made the program very different from others."

As Green closed her talk to students, she said that years from now most of their patients, probably none of their patients, would remember the esoteric details of their care.

"But they will remember how your hands made them feel less broken, how your reasoning gave them a plan and how your heart helped them believe progress was possible.

"They will remember you."

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