(Butler, PA) A former 22-year-old divorced mother who pursued an associate degree in physical therapist assistant to help patients “get back to doing what they liked” has been recognized for outstanding achievement in clinical practice, community service and personal commitment to her field.
The American Physical Therapy Association-Pennsylvania has selected Ashlee Esplen, a professor in Butler County Community College’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health, as recipient of its 2021 Steven Kolumban Award.
“A pretty prestigious honor to receive as a physical therapist assistant,” said Dr. Norman Johnson, a professor who nominated Esplen, his former student at the Community College of Allegheny County and former employee at Anchor Physical Therapy, Pittsburgh. “It’s one of the top awards you can get.”
Kolumban, a physical therapist, and his wife, a registered nurse, served 24 years as missionaries in India, where the majority of their patients suffered from complications related to leprosy, according to the American Physical Therapy Association-Pennsylvania. Kolumban and his wife later moved to Gettysburg. Kolumban passed away years after his return.
The American Physical Therapy Association-Pennsylvania as of October had 5,279 members.
Criteria for the award named for Kolumban include community service and activities that enhance the quality of life and function; the exemplification and promotion of the role as physical therapist assistant through education, practice or research; and the ability to inspire patients, peers or students to perform at, or strive to achieve optimal potential.
“A good role model for her students”
“(Esplen) has done these things,” Johnson said. “She’s been a physical therapist assistant for 29 years. She’s progressed through the ranks … and she’s a good role model for her students.”
Esplen instructs courses and manages clinical experiences for students in BC3’s physical therapist assistant program.
She earned an associate in science degree in physical therapist assistant and a certificate in massage from the Community College of Allegheny County, and a bachelor’s degree in health science and a master’s degree in professional leadership health service education from the formerly named Carlow College.
“She not only teaches, but she has remained active clinically for most of her teaching career, which is very difficult to do.”
Esplen retired in May after working her final 11 years as a part-time practitioner at Anchor Physical Therapy, a company formerly co-owned by Johnson and in which she helped patients with mostly orthopedic injuries to regain motion and strength.
“She not only teaches, but she has remained active clinically for most of her teaching career, which is very difficult to do,” said Dr. Patty Annear, dean of BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health.
Esplen is also adviser to students in BC3’s physical therapist assistant club, instilling in its members projects such as the creation of Easter baskets for the Butler County Alliance for Children, contributions to the American Red Cross to assist hurricane victims, collections of footwear as part of a Shoes4Kids campaign and fundraising for the college’s Pioneer Pantry.
“Ashlee was always about the community service,” said Megan Zaremski, a 2021 BC3 physical therapist assistant graduate who served two years as president of the program’s club.
“She was the lead on getting us started for others who may not have much or are lacking. We were able to provide them with their needs.”
“She was able to connect with us”
Esplen has been an educator at BC3 since 1995. Her first job as a physical therapist assistant was in 1992 at Presbyterian and Montefiore hospitals in Pittsburgh.
Zaremski, of Gibsonia, has worked as a full-time physical therapist assistant since June in Allison Park, and said her education at BC3 benefited from Esplen’s contemporaneous work in the field.
“She was able to connect with us on a whole other level,” Zaremski said. “Because she was working with all the different injuries that were coming in and out of her clinic, she would then bring it to us, and we would do different case studies.”
Said Johnson: “You can’t just sit back. Once you’re teaching, you have to stay current on pretty much everything because students don’t want to hear things that are 10 years old. They want to hear the current things that prepare them to go out into the work environment.”
"Once you’re teaching, you have to stay current on pretty much everything because students don’t want to hear things that are 10 years old."
Physical therapist assistant is a BC3 career program in which students can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation.
Esplen oversees students’ five-week clinical experiences for the physical therapist assistant program in hospitals and outpatient clinics, and their eight-week clinical experience in rehabilitation facilities.
Prof: “We want to help people”
Esplen is also a licensed massage therapist in Pennsylvania and coordinator of BC3’s technical trades-massage therapy management option career program and its workplace certificate program in massage therapy.
“We want to help people,” Esplen said. “That’s why we all do it. To help someone who can’t walk or can’t lift, to get them to get back to doing what they liked. You helped them achieve that goal. It’s as simple as that.”
BC3’s 70-credit physical therapist assistant program addresses a high-priority occupation in the Tri-County Workforce Development area, which encompasses Armstrong, Butler and Indiana counties. Its entry-level salary in 2019 was $45,600, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry.
The success rate of BC3 graduates taking the post-graduation National Physical Therapy Examination that results in licensing is 94 percent in the past 21 years, program coordinator Dr. Randall Kruger said in May.
Practitioners assist physical therapists in providing treatments and procedures, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median annual salary in May was $59,770.
Johnson created the physical therapist assistant program in 1988 at the Community College of Allegheny County, where Esplen would bring 3-year-old son Aaron to class in the early 1990s.
“I am really proud to see how she has grown, as a person and as a physical therapist assistant,” Johnson said. “I think the biggest reason why she is successful is she just keeps learning. … She’s worked numerous jobs while she’s taught. She has a really well-rounded background not only in education, but also in the practice of physical therapy.”
