Kelly Sanders, PT, DPT, ATC serves as President of Movement for Life, an employee-owned private practice with a family of clinics in Arizona, California, North Carolina and Virginia.  Kelly has served on multiple PPS committees and task forces including Impact magazine, payment policy, telehealth and value based care and is currently serving as a Director on the PPS Board since her appointment in late 2020. 

Candidate Statement

This is my 20th year of involvement in APTA Private Practice.  As I shared when running for my first term on the Board of Directors, my introduction was as a member of the section’s 50th anniversary task force.  That year, I had the honor of interviewing some of the “greats” in our section, who shared with me our section’s origins, the hard fought battles, the challenges and wins of the first five decades.  I heard about the life-long friendships and support, the shared knowledge and the collective advocacy the section supported.  I am honored to be a part of a section born out of so much determination and grit, but also connection, advocacy and education.  At time same time, each time I reflect back on the first year I was a member, it reminds me how much this section has achieved and assures me that together, we will solve the problems and challenges we face as a profession.

In terms of my background, I grew up in a small business.  Throughout my childhood, I watched my father, and his two partners work hard, build a team of loyal employees, provide opportunity for others and ultimately grow a company that reflected their values.  When I graduated from PT school, private practice made sense as my first job; I had seen that a small business could care deeply about quality services and those they employed, because I saw how important community reputation had been in my family’s small business.  A year after graduating, my husband (also a PT) and I joined and soon after bought into the practice we continue to be a part of to this day.  In my current role leading our practice, I have had the opportunity to lead a team through payment issues, cash flow shifts, transitioning our team from a PT owned to employee-owned organization, the successions of key team members, a global pandemic and workforce challenges.  I am intimately aware of the challenges and rewards of running a small business, I have been around it my entire life. 

It is these collective experiences growing up in a small business, volunteering with the section for 20 years and working in and on my own practice that make me confident I can continue to make meaningful contributions to the PPS Board of Directors.  In the time I have served on the PPS board, each year it becomes even clearer that we are in a critical time for our profession both in terms of the issues we face as well as the opportunities in our midst.  The decisions we make today will affect the next generation of practice ownership.  We must be open to the changes on the horizon and find thoughtful solutions with those we serve in mind.  We are balancing payment issues, rising expenses, workforce challenges, and high student debt.   Despite the challenges, we have amazing opportunity.  At no other time in history have so many people needed and wanted physical therapy.  As physical therapists, we are uniquely qualified to significantly improve musculoskeletal health as direct access clinicians.  We also have the opportunity to take a hard look at the choices we are making in our practices that promote poor payment and workforce issues.  Together, I know solutions are possible and I hope to have the opportunity to continue to serve each of you in finding and implementing those solutions across our practices.

I am grateful and honored to be a part of this year’s candidate slate.  I humbly ask for your trust and vote in representing this great section.