E29 - A Conversation with Rashelle Hoffman, President of the Nebraska Foundation for Physical Therapy

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Welcome to the APTA Nebraska Podcast, where we dive into the stories, challenges, and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state.
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We're here to advance, promote, and protect the practice of physical therapy, optimizing the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans.
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Join us as we connect with experts, share insights, and build community throughout our profession.
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Welcome back to the APTA Nebraska podcast.
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My name is Brad Dexter, your host, and I'm joined today by Rochelle Hoffman.
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Rochelle, how are you?
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Doing great.
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Thanks, Brad.
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Absolutely.
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Rochelle is our esteemed president of the Nebraska Foundation for Physical Therapy.
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And as we try to get into some rhythms on this podcast, this is a great point in the year to have a conversation with Rochelle to just hear about the work that the Nebraska Foundation for Physical Therapy is doing, the awards that exist, the people that have won awards, and to just take a moment to celebrate all of those things, as well as try to inform you, our listeners and physical therapists, physical therapy assistants, to make sure that you understand the awards that are out there and that are available for you within our state and our practice.
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So, Rochelle, welcome back to the show.
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It's good to have you.
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Why don't we just start off with some of the highlights from the last year?
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So, do you want to talk about some of our award recipients and point our listeners toward the work that's being done there?
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Absolutely.
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So, just as a brief reminder for those of you that may not be familiar with the foundation, we overall exist and our mission is to advance Nebraska physical therapy as a profession.
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And so we do this through, I'll explain today how we even have a new award for more career advancement opportunities, but then also through research that we do here in Nebraska.
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So I'll start off with talking about our scientific dissemination award.
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So this is an award that students, clinicians that are practicing full-time or faculty could apply for that helps them to cover travel costs when they are presenting some of their work that they have done here in Nebraska.
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And overall, at the Combined Sections meeting in 2026 that was out in Anaheim, we were able to support six individuals that were presenting, which was fantastic.
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We haven't had that many in quite a few years.
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And so of those five were students, one was faculty.
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And then since CSM, we also have supported another faculty that has presented her work internationally as well.
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And as a reminder, too, with us, we accept these applications on a rolling basis.
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So there is no deadline for these.
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So as you are presenting at conferences that maybe are within APTA or beyond, keep us in mind as you can get up to$1,500 to support your travel registration or any other conference-related expenses.
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Rochelle, how many times can you apply for an award like that?
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So for the Scientific Dissemination Award, it is a two-time lifetime award.
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So twice that you can apply for that award.
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Excellent.
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Thank you.
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And I wanted to next go to our new award that we started this year.
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This is the Rising Star Award.
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And the Rising Star Award is for early career professionals.
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And what do I mean by early career?
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That means within five years of graduating from either your PTA or PT program.
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And the goal of this award is to really advance your career growth.
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And so it's very open to multiple things that it could fund.
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Could be leadership training, it could be a myriad of things.
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And so for this application, we do have an essay that we do want written about how whatever you're asking to be supported with up to$1,500 for the funds for this award, how those funds could be used to advance your professional growth.
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And so how does that connect?
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And then we do ask for a support letter from your employer that kind of shows how does it even go beyond you?
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How can you bring those skills back to your place of employment to be able to share that further with your colleagues?
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And I'm excited to share that we did have our first awardee, so Porfirio Garcia Hernandez.
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He traveled to the APTA Payment Advocacy Summit in Portland, Oregon.
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And he actually was even awarded an award at this event.
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And this was the APTA Access and Opportunity Award.
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So we were very excited to support him as he traveled to receive that and excited to see where his career goes from here.
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And for students, especially as you are either getting close to graduation or maybe you're earlier in your career thinking about the scientific dissemination award, I did want to mention that the foundation will have a booth at Student Conclave that will be at UNMC and that will be in October 23rd.
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So if you have questions about these specific awards and want to chat in person, myself or other representatives of the board will be there to chat with you further about that.
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I've got a QV applause for Porfirio and just again say congratulations to him for winning the Rising Star Award and for the award that he got out west as well.
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So thanks for highlighting that, Rochelle.
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Absolutely.
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And I'll highlight our last award that we give out, which is our Blanton Research Grant.
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So this is a research grant you can apply for, and within your budget, up to$10,000 for a project that does not have to be, you know, specifically in an academic setting.
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This is for someone that could be even be out in the clinic.
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A student could even apply for this.
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But it's over a two-year project period.
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And as I said, award up to$10,000.
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The deadline for this is October 1st.
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And overall, the goal of the project needs to somehow advance the physical therapy profession.
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So very open.
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I'm happy to chat with anyone that may have questions about if their project may be a good fit, or if they have questions about how to draft that application.
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And we do have information online about the sections, the page limit requirements, and all of that was on our website.
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So I'm hopeful Brad will put our website link in the show notes so that you can easily access that.
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I do know how to do that.
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Thank you.
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Very good.
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The last thing I really wanted to highlight was if you are passionate about and want to donate to the foundation, we have multiple opportunities for that.
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A new way to donate this year, too, is that you can donate to specific awards.
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Let's say that you are super excited about the Rising Star Award.
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When you go to our website and click the donate button, you could scan that QR code and just donate and say, I want my funds just to go to the Rising Star Award, or likewise could be to any of the other awards.
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Or of course, there's also the option you could do the all awards, and then it's just in a big bucket of money there.
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But we did highlight a few award winners for our donors this year.
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So just as a review, we have five different levels that we highlight and award donors.
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So the lowest$500 is the Wayne Purdue Fellow up to bronze, which is$1,500.
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Silver is a$2,500 donation, gold$5,000, and the friend of the foundation, which is$10,000.
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And we awarded at the silver level, Joe Pittman this year, as well as at the gold level, Gail Jensen.
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So we're very excited and very thankful for the uh very generous amount that they have donated to the foundation to really make it possible for us to continue to disseminate awards to all of our students, clinicians, faculty in the Nebraska area.
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It's fantastic.
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That was a lot, Rochelle.
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Well done.
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We have a lot going on.
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I'm excited that we're continuing to grow and yes, hopeful for even more applications over this next year for our three different awards.
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I love, I love all of the work that's happening.
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I get to serve on this board with you as well.
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Um there's some great people serving on the board.
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I uh would just also point out uh we'll likely have some fundraising opportunities that will be coming out within the next year.
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So um, in the case that we don't get back around to highlighting those things on this podcast, I just want to state some of them, keep your eyes open for those uh later in the fall or early winter time, um, as we'll be trying to get some fundraising opportunities out.
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We really are trying to um find a lot of opportunities and and and really make people aware of the opportunities that are available to them to continue supporting their career, the scholarship work that they're doing, research work that they're doing, um, and certainly support them within their places of work and growing as clinicians, uh, and certainly bringing uh good quality information back to their clinics, their places of work so that they can influence um their colleagues and the patients that they're serving as well.
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So yeah, a lot of great work.
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It doesn't happen without many of you listening, um, certainly without the people that are donating to the foundation, um, and certainly without people serving.
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It's not a pat on my own back, it's a pat on your back, Rochelle.
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Um, certainly appreciate the work that you're doing there uh to make all of this happen.
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And I'll just say if any of our listeners are interested in being part of the foundation, we do have four spots that we will have open that we're hoping to fill.
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And those uh the election is around the timing of the spring meeting.
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So if you are interested in learning what does it mean to serve on the foundation, what is that time commitment, um, feel free to reach out to any of us on the board.
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I'm happy to have that discussion and would love to have you on the board with us.
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Well, Rochelle, before you leave, I've started a new segment on the podcast.
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This is called the Good Life Lightning Round, okay?
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Okay.
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So I'm gonna hit you with with a number of random questions, and I'm I'm just looking for a lot of speed answers from you.
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Can you handle that?
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I suppose.
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Here we go.
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Okay.
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You ready for the first one?
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Yep.
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All right.
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Runza or Valentino's?
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Runza.
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All right.
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What is your what would what would your walk-up song in the clinic or into your office be?
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Oh my goodness, that's a tough one.
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You know, I would say I'm a sucker for all the pitch perfect songs.
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I would say any of the pitch perfect songs from the soundtrack.
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All right, are you going with a cup song?
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You going with a cup song?
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Yes.
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Okay, let's go with a cup song.
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Okay.
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Um, coffee, tea, or an energy drink to get through a full day?
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Cold coffee with a lot of milk and sugar in there.
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Okay.
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Finish this sentence.
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The best part of my job is I was like working with students.
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Beautiful.
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Um, let's see.
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A patient that still makes you smile.
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Oh, I think it's not an individual patient, but a lot of my work is with older adults, and I do like high-intensity interval training stuff, and I'm just still amazed at some of the uh things that they can do.
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We just finished up a class where they were doing burpees and all these crazy things.
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So, and we did have, I guess, one person to answer your question.
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We did have one individual that set the um world record for rowing, a 90-year-old individual.
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So that was astounding.
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So I would if I had to pick one person, I would say her.
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That's so great.
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All right, last one for you.
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Um, most used phrase that you say to patients.
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I don't know.
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I don't for full transparency, I don't practice actively as much anymore.
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But when I was more um practicing full time, I think I said cool beans a lot for some reason.
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I don't know why.
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I think that's maybe a phased out thing.
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So it's probably in the archives.
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People don't really say that anymore, so maybe that states me.
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But I feel like I said cool beans a lot when we I think that's a phrase segue into other next exercise or things.
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Yeah, I think that's a phrase that has been um, you know, just thrown into a pit at this point, or you know, that a certain generation of us still use occasionally.
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Uh something like that.
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I used to use it a lot more.
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I don't as much anymore, but in my clinical practice days I did.
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That's great.
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Well, Rochelle, thank you for your time.
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Thank you for the work that you're doing with the foundation, and uh thanks for all of the the great information that you shared with us today, too.
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Um listeners, I hope that this podcast was beneficial and informative to you.
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Um, and we hope to see some of your names coming across in these applications um or wanting to serve uh with the foundation uh here soon as well.
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So again, Rochelle, thanks for your time.
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Thank you, Brad.
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Great to be here.
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Thanks for tuning in to the APTA Nebraska Podcast.
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Stay connected with us for more conversations to elevate our profession and improve the lives of Nebraskans.
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Don't forget to subscribe, share, and join the discussion.
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Because together we're driving the future of physical therapy forward.