Danny Smith (left), Awards Chair of TPTA, and Alan Meade (right), Vice President of TPTA, recognize Dr. Michael Voight as TPTA Educator of the Year.
Dr. Michael Voight, Professor of Physical Therapy, recently was named Educator of the Year by the Tennessee Physical Therapy Association (TPTA).
Dr. Voight was nominated for this honor by a former student, Dr. Ashley Campbell. “In his life, Dr. Voight has educated thousands of students and clinicians, and I am lucky to be among that group,” said Campbell. She added, “as a student, Dr. Voight guided, encouraged and challenged me to be the best. He taught me by example what it means to be great, and to never be satisfied with good. He never ceases to amaze me in his passion and dedication to the profession of physical therapy, especially the education of both future and current clinicians.”
Dr. Voight has taught orthopedics at Belmont since 1998, the year after the graduate program in physical therapy was initiated by the university. In addition to his full-time role as professor, Dr. Voight serves as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, consults with a number of noted golf professionals for the Titleist Performance Institute on the prevention, evaluation and treatment of golf injuries, and lectures extensively at various conferences, symposiums, and congresses both nationally and internationally, having given over 600 professional presentations on a variety of orthopedic and sports medicine topics.
In years past Dr. Voight has worked or consulted with a number of professional sports organizations, including the Philadelphia Eagles, Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL), the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and various teams in Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS). Early in his career he became active within the United States Olympic Committee’s Sports Medicine Division. He has worked at the Olympic Training Center, Olympic Festivals, Pan Am Games, Olympic Games, and has had the opportunity to travel to almost all of the different continents with various Olympic and national teams.
Most recently, Voight has worked with the Medical Commission for FIFA (the International governing body for soccer) and the Professional Golf Association (PGA). He was selected in 2011 as a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), the most prestigious honor granted by the organization which recognizes those who have made lasting and significant advances in the science, education and practice of the profession of physical therapy.