Dr. Shirley Sahrmann

By Ginger O’Donnell

At age 88, Professor Emerita of Physical Therapy Shirley Sahrmann, BS ’58, MA ’71, PhD ’73, PT, FAPTA, is still as passionate about advancing the field as she was when she joined the WashU faculty in 1961. Now retired, the revered educator of more than five decades — whose scholarship has shaped what it means to practice physical therapy today — continues to advocate for the role of movement in preventing illness and fostering healthier lives. This summer, she led a virtual continuing education course for more than two dozen physical therapists in Japan and an on-site course for 12 Japanese physical therapists. And she recently delivered two lectures to the MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks about optimal movement of the shoulder and hip to prevent injury.

“I truly believe that if physical therapists do their job well at guiding movement, we can further the age before people develop major health problems,” she says. “The best analogy is dentistry. Shortly after getting your teeth, you go to a dentist. And then you go regularly. The vision is that we’d start movement exams early in life to monitor young children on a yearly basis.”

This was not the enlightened approach when Sahrmann entered the university. She came to WashU in the mid-1950s, roughly 10 years after the physical therapy program transitioned to a baccalaureate degree as part of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. It had initially launched in 1942 as a six-month training course for treating injured soldiers during World War II. At the time, physical therapy was gaining national attention for its capacity to treat polio, a motivator for Sahrmann alongside her passion for physical activity — she relished playing softball, basketball, volleyball, and other sports. But the field was still in its infancy. “When I started, there were three faculty and 18 students,” she recalls.

“They are superstars — so bright and committed. That was one of the advantages of starting a PhD program. Now we have people who build on that foundation by becoming lead investigators in the profession.”

Shirley Sahrmann, BS ’58, MA ’71, PhD ’73, PT, FAPTA

Sahrmann threw herself wholeheartedly into the profession, commencing an evolution that continues to this day. Ten years after becoming a WashU professor of physical therapy, she developed an interest in stroke patients. She went back to school at WashU Medicine to deepen her expertise in this area, earning both a master’s degree and a doctorate in neurobiology. There, she built a close relationship with the late Bill Landau, head of the Department of Neurology for more than two decades and one of the longest-serving faculty members at the medical school.

Together, Sahrmann and Landau conducted research with monkeys to explore movement problems in stroke survivors, using the analog methods of the day, such as recording brain activity during movement on strip chart cords. “That part of my life, I spent more time with monkeys than people,” Sahrmann says. “You had to go in every day of the week — Christmas, New Years, whatever — and record and take care of them.”

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Gammon Earhart

PhD ’00, PT, FAPTA
Professor of physical therapy, neurology, and neuroscience
Associate dean and director, Program in Physical Therapy

Earhart graduated from WashU Medicine’s PhD in Movement Science program in 2000. Her interest in physical therapy was sparked as a high school student exploring the field of special education, where she witnessed children’s enthusiastic freedom of movement in response to physical therapy sessions. Her dual interest in ecology, and specifically, turtles, later led her to biology and physical therapy Professor Paul Stein at WashU, who uses the reptiles to model spinal cord control of movement.

Today, an acclaimed scholar and academic leader herself, Earhart’s lab studies the brain mechanisms underlying neural control of movement in people with Parkinson’s disease, and how interventions like walking, dancing, and even singing can offset symptoms and improve overall well-being. “It’s wonderful to hear participants’ stories about how involvement in our research has enhanced their quality of life,” she says.

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Catherine Lang

PhD ’01, PT, FASNR, FAPTA
Barbara J. Norton Professor of Physical Therapy
Professor of neurology and occupational therapy
Associate director, Movement Science Program

Lang, a 2001 graduate of WashU Medicine’s PhD in Movement Science Program, grew up cross country skiing and is now an avid runner, passionate about exercise, and most often on the move. In the lab, she focuses on measurement and rehabilitation of stroke survivors, along with other neurological conditions.

Her research team uses wearable movement sensors that precisely quantify movement in conjunction with a custom algorithm they designed — all to ensure that therapeutic success is measured by movement gains in the real world, not just the clinic. “There are very few places that have a high-quality physical therapy program that is wedded with really good — and very collaborative — neuroscience and neurology programs,” Lang says. “Our research blossoms here in ways it wouldn’t elsewhere.”

Her most profound impact, however, was moving the field itself — urging it toward preventative medicine through more organized, consistent diagnostic standards and a greater emphasis on research. She developed a theoretical framework known as “the movement system,” which was adopted by the American Physical Therapy Association in 2013 as the foundation for the profession, entered into Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, and centered at various national and international conferences, notwithstanding its influence on WashU’s No. 1 ranked program.

“Like the immune system, the movement system is a system of systems,” Sahrmann explains. “It incorporates the musculoskeletal system, the nervous system, and others. How do they all work together to produce movement? That’s what it’s all about.” Her seminal 2000 textbook Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes, which was later translated into seven languages, codified this new framework for generations of students across the globe.

Sahrmann would go on to help launch WashU’s PhD in Movement Science program and serve as its inaugural director. She also was the physical therapy program’s associate director of research. In these roles, she leveraged the university’s excellence across disciplines, e.g., biology, psychology, and neurology — as well as the university’s renowned strengths in interdisciplinary collaboration — to build a robust research culture. “We created the doctoral program to examine the evidence for what we were doing,” she says. “Not just to do things, but to know things.”

“They are superstars — so bright and committed,” Sahrmann says. “That was one of the advantages of starting a PhD program. Now we have people who build on that foundation by becoming lead investigators in the profession.”

Looking back, Sahrmann marvels at the WashU physical therapy program’s progress in integrating research, education, and clinical care, and achieving excellence in each. “That’s the strength of the WashU program today,” she says. “It does all three things in a remarkable way. You have leading researchers in the profession. You have a clinical practice that is growing. And you have faculty who participate in the clinical practice. It all goes hand in hand.”

From her current vantage point as an alumna and professor emerita, Sahrmann now continues her loyalty by investing in the program’s excellence through philanthropy. Throughout her industrious, boots-on-the-ground career, she has amassed enough savings to fund five endowed scholarships, among other gifts. She believes strongly in reducing financial burdens for students and making a physical therapy education accessible for all qualified applicants.

For her, WashU remains the gift. “WashU was so wonderful to me,” she says. “Attending this university was one of the most fortunate decisions I’ve ever made. I’ve had all this opportunity with clinical practice, education, etc. How could I not want to return that?”

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