On behalf of the Council, I am pleased to announce that Associate Professor Louisa Remedios and Dr Margaret Potter have been selected as the recipients of the Pat Maher Award 2020.
Since its establishment in 2018, the annual Pat Maher Award recognises individuals who have made a significant contribution to the Council and have demonstrated transformational leadership.
Louisa and Margaret were officially recognised and awarded during a Board meeting held on Friday 26 February 2021.
Associate Professor Louisa Remedios
Associate Professor Remedios is an experienced and committed educator, who led the curriculum development of the Doctor of Physiotherapy program, and the post qualification Masters programs at the University of Melbourne.
Associate Professor Remedios has been an advocate for better education of physiotherapists to improve health outcomes in indigenous communities. She was instrumental in the development of our Cultural Safety Training at the University of Melbourne, which has since been acknowledged as an impressively comprehensive program. She is also a member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Health Committee and is on the working party that developed the second APA Reconciliation Action Plan.
Her consulting work includes curriculum renewal for several university programs in India and the renewal of the specialisation training program at the Australian College of Physiotherapists. She is also the Chair of the U21 Sustainable Development Goals group and a member of World Physiotherapy’s Education Policy Guidelines Expert Group.
Dr Margaret Potter
As the Director of the Teach Education Learn Lead TELL Centre, Dr Potter promotes excellence in teaching and learning in the clinical setting.
She has been an APA nominated member of the Council’s Accreditation Committee for 8 years, during which she has also been an active accreditation panel member and Chair. In 2019 Dr Potter developed and delivered accreditation training to the Council’s pool of accreditation panel members.
She has assisted with accreditation policy development and research for the Council, enabling the Accreditation Committee to develop expert advice to stakeholders.
Dr Potter has been an effective change agent for the Council assisting with the implementation of the new accreditation standard. She has had a direct impact on improving the quality of the Council’s accreditation panels and aligning their performance to the Council’s values and strategy.
Thank you, Associate Professor Remedios and Dr Potter, for your incredible contribution to the Council and excellent work in physiotherapy.