Travis Dills recognized again by American Physical Therapy Association
A student currently enrolled in the Somerset Community College (SCC) Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) program has been named the recipient of the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy’s Outstanding Student Award for 2016. Travis Dills of Somerset will receive the award at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in Anaheim, California this month. He will also receive the APTA Orthopaedic Section’s Outstanding PTA Student Award at the conference. Dills is the fourth SCC student to win the award. Past winners from SCC include: Brittany McKee, Bronston; Briana Allen, Monticello; and Debora Lasure, Stanford.
Dills serves as president of his class and is a peer mentor and tutor. He was named the winner of a statewide essay competition about the importance of advocacy in healthcare and, as winner, represented Kentucky at the Federal Advocacy Forum in Washington, DC. He is an active member of the Kentucky Physical Therapy Association (KPTA) and serves as vice-chair for the KPTA’s Student Special Interest Group.
At SCC, he is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honorary and the Physical Therapy Student Organization. In 2015, he received the highest honor presented within SCC’s PTA Program, having been selected the recipient of the James H. Anderson Award. This award is especially meaningful as it is peer-selected and based upon the expectation that the recipient will make a significant and lasting impact upon the physical therapy profession. He was one of only three PTA students in Kentucky to be named to the Kentucky Physical Therapy Association’s (KPTA) All-Academic Team in 2015. He is also the recipient of the Mattie Helen Elliot Scholarship and was appointed by SCC President and CEO Dr. Jo Marshall to serve on the PTA program’s advisory board.
Dills was nominated for the award by Chris Garland, who describes him as “hard working, compassionate and respectful of others.” The nomination was supported by program faculty members Dr. Ron Meade, Dr. Steve Hammons, PT and Claudette Prather, PTA and by program students Jason Fox and Chris Kent.
Dills is the son of Mike and Sharon Dills of Somerset and is expected to graduate with an Associates of Applied Science Degree from the Physical Therapist Assistant Program in May, 2016.