CRCS Professional Achievement Award Winner - Dan Mills
Alumni Dan Mills was awarded the Idaho State University College of Rehabilitation & Communication Sciences’ Professional Achievement Award for 2019. He graduated from ISU in Pocatello with a Master’s degree in Physical Therapy in 1998. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Exercise Science from Utah State University in 1996.
Today, Dan holds positions as the Medical Director for Western Rehabilitation Health Network, on the Board of Directors of the American Physical Therapy Association and as a business owner of Performance Rehabilitation Clinics in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.
Dan applied to multiple schools for his PT education and spent a lot of time evaluating his choices, including visiting schools across the west. After visiting ISU, he was so impressed by our faculty that he chose us over much bigger institutions. ISU did not offer the best or the biggest facility, but he recognized several New England accents amongst our faculty. After spending some time with them, he realized their breadth of expertise was more important and valuable than fancy new facilities.
At Idaho State University, Dan found a great kinship with his small group of classmates. It was a great environment for learning. His Academic Coordinator of Clinical Education, Nancy Devine, a current faculty, helped Dan find great clinical internships that helped shaped Dan into the physical therapist that he is today. Without those experiences, his career might have taken a very different path.
He still remembers a discussion with faculty member Dr. Alex Urfer in the late 1990’s. Dr. Urfer was missing his ACL in his left knee. Dr. Urfer’s revolutionary idea that an ACL could be healed using only rehabilitation instead of a full reconstruction is just now being explored as a preferred treatment.
While Dan completed several internships for ISU in Great Falls, Montana, he found several valuable experiences that led him down a different path than he first intended. While completing a neuro-based internship, he was introduced to researchers with NIH grants at a biomechanics lab. Their research was cutting-edge and greatly influenced his future choices. He also spent as much time as he could with a physical therapist who was focused on industrial medicine and workman’s compensation claims.
One of the highlights of Dan’s education was watching his new-born daughter meet her growth and develop¬ment milestones as he learned about them in the curriculum. It was the best simultaneous live-class¬room educational experience he could have asked for.
Dan traveled to Idaho in May to attend the Alumni Association ceremony for the Professional Achievement Award winners. During that visit, he met and spoke to many of our current students at a luncheon in historic Garrison Hall. He shared some of his experiences with them, including the incredible journey that brought him to where he is today. He says that luck, timing, hard work and dedication all played a part. His advice to stu¬dents today is to be open, available and seek out opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others.
Dan encourages students and practitioners to ‘walk the walk’ and not to just ‘talk the talk’, by living healthy and active lives. Today, Dan has completed 6 Ironman competitions, even though he didn’t start training until he was in his 40’s. He enjoys a wide variety of outdoor activities with his family.
Since 2008, Dan has been a World Health Organization (WHO) Master Trainer where he prepared 50 physical therapists to serve in 120 different countries providing over 600,000 wheelchairs to individuals in need. He has traveled to Africa and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia more than 8 times to provide wheelchair fittings and clinics. In 2012, he joined the advisory committee for the LDS Humanitarian Wheelchair Initiative. Dan ensures that the opportunities he pursues meet 2 criteria: that his efforts will be appreciated, and that he is truly making a difference.
He believes that now is the best time in history to be a physical therapist and Idaho is one of the greatest states in which to practice. Idaho State University provides a wonderful experience and has a great legacy with their Physical Therapy Program in southeast Idaho.
