College of Rehabilitation Sciences (CRS) faculty member Ms. Catherine Joy Escuadra was named a congress programme committee (CPC) member for the next World Physiotherapy (WP) Congress, which is set to take place in Tokyo, Japan, in 2023. The announcement was released on July 14, 2021, on the WP website.
As an international organization of physiotherapists, WP gathers clinicians, educators, researchers, managers, and policy-makers and in a global congress every two years.
The CPC, which will shape the scientific programme, consists of 12 physiotherapists from around the globe, including Escuadra. Committee members were chosen after a formal application and review process led by WP 2023 CPC Chair Jackie Whittaker, Ph.D., from the University of British Columbia.
Founded in 1951 by 11 national physiotherapy associations as the World Confederation for Physical Therapy, World Physiotherapy, as it is now known, represents more than 600,000 physiotherapists worldwide through its 125 member organizations. It is a non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom.
Escuadra, who holds a Master’s degree in health profession education from UST, is also an editorial board member of the Philippine Journal of Allied Health Sciences, and the member secretary of the ethics review committee.
As part of the board of officers of the Philippine Physical Therapy Association, Escuadra has helped organize student and professional physiotherapy congresses in the Philippines and Asia region. In previous WP Congresses, she has served as a CPC member (2019), as an abstract reviewer and research presenter (2019, 2021), and moderator (2021) for previous World Physiotherapy congresses. She is currently a Ph.D. student in Education major in Educational Big Data at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
