Nov 19, 2025
APTA honors VCU alum for excellence in academic teaching
Anne Lorio, DPT, Ph.D., a 2001 graduate of VCU’s physical therapy masters program, was already nervous in the moments before delivering a graduation address to her physical therapy students at Georgia State University earlier this year. The call she received before taking the stage made the moment even more memorable.
It was from Kyle Covington, DPT, Ph.D., president of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and Lorio’s longtime friend. “He said, ‘Hey, guess what? You’re getting our academic teaching award this year,’” recalled Lorio.
Moments later, her GSU department chair announced the news to the crowd of 500. “I thought, okay, no pressure, but I’d better perform well!” Lorio said.
Lorio received the Dorothy E. Baethke-Eleanor J. Carlin Award for Excellence in Academic Teaching in July, after having been nominated multiple times before. The APTA presents the award annually to educators who demonstrate exceptional teaching effectiveness, creativity in learner engagement and mentorship across all levels of academia.
According to Lorio, who teaches neurological physical therapy – the evaluation and treatment of conditions caused by nervous system diseases or injuries – at GSU, the recognition “felt like a really wonderful acknowledgment for a lot of the work, effort and thought that goes into teaching.” Her philosophy centers on active learning, which helps her keep students engaged in an age of distraction.
“I try to do less talk and use more physically and visually engaged teaching methods,” Lorio said. This might mean taking students on field trips to observe neuro PT in action or using a simple card trick to spark creative thinking about patient engagement. “I’ll do a trick, then ask an unexpected question that makes students think outside the box, like, ‘How could I use this magic trick in a gait training session with patients?’”
Lorio traces her love for her current specialties – including spinal cord and brain injuries and movement disorders – to her VCU studies. Though she entered the masters program interested in sports medicine, a clinical rotation she completed in Atlanta changed her course. “I had never really known what neuro PT entailed until I went, and I absolutely fell in love with it and made a 180-degree shift,” she said.
Two decades later, Lorio still models the curiosity she strives to instill in her students. “My classroom motto is ‘Learning with Lorio,’” she said. “I want them to stay mindful to never stop learning, because you never know when you might learn something that changes your path.”