BUIES CREEK — It was a coincidence that Brett Windsor relocated to North Carolina as Campbell University was creating its Doctor of Physical Therapy program. Now Windsor finds himself immersed in creating courses, reviewing student applications, and wearing a lot more orange and black on purpose these days.
Windsor, who was born and raised in Australia, has called the United States home for close to twenty years. After spending seven years in Indiana practicing as a clinician, he moved to Portland where he was on faculty at Pacific University teaching musculoskeletal physical therapy at the post-graduate level.
He joins Campbell University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences as an assistant professor of health professional studies for the physical therapy program. He spends the majority of his time building the program’s curriculum alongside program director, Greg Dedrick.
“It’s one of the perks of being here,” Windsor said. “We’re building our program from scratch and not having to compete with years of tradition and the status quo.”
The three-year physical therapy curriculum will be extremely hands-on versus lecture-based teaching. Windsor will be heavily involved in the second-year courses, focusing on muscoskeletal clinical reasoning, manual therapy, and spinal and peripheral joint manipulation.
“One of my goals is to continually push myself to be a better professor,” said Windsor. “I kind of fell into teaching, but I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. Teaching is what I was designed to do.”
He demonstrates his natural ability of teaching by simplifying the science of physical therapy for non-science minded people. “Everything we do is about movement. It’s taking someone who can’t move or is pain, and figuring out why that is and how to get them moving again.”
Not only will he begin actively teaching in his role of assistant professor in 2014, he will complete his doctor of philosophy degree from Rocky Mountain University.
“I’m excited about the upcoming year. I’m looking forward to having students and more faculty members in the halls,” he said. “I’m ready to finish up my degree and I’m ready to settle into the exciting things that are coming up for Campbell University. This is the perfect place for me.” — By Leah Whitt, College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences