Professor Stephanie Lurch receives award for Excellence in Community-Based Clinical Teaching

Congratulations to Professor Stephanie Lurch on receiving the 2023 Award for Excellence in Community-Based Teaching (Rehabilitation Sciences).

This award recognizes Prof. Lurch’s exemplary teaching skills, demonstrated ability to stimulate learners to think critically, analytically and independently, and commitment to the enhancement of the learner’s experience.

Prof. Lurch is best described as a contemporary educator who resists the traditional and in doing so stimulates critical thinking. She is a storyteller, educator, activist, humanitarian and physiotherapist.

In her position as Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Prof. Lurch is the Academic Lead for Equity, Anti-racism, and Social Accountability. She co-develops and delivers the component of the SPEC (social, political, ethical, cultural) curriculum in the MScPT program, which integrates social justice and the arts into health care education.

“Stephanie fully embodies the dual roles of educator and advocate in our community. She is a changemaker. She has reached many with her ability to use language in teaching and storytelling, and she can connect ideas and change minds with enviable ease. Her ability to translate ideas from academia and speak directly with everyday people is what makes her such a unique and accessible educator,” says her colleagues in the Black Physiotherapy Association.

We are proud to have Prof. Lurch as a faculty member in the Department of Physical Therapy and are grateful for her dedication to making the MScPT program a unique and enriching learning experience for our students.