Mindset – a person’s own attitudes, beliefs, and expectations - acts as a foundation of who they are and the ways they interact and connect with others. Mindset influences how individuals see, interpret and respond to situations.  Mindset influences decisions and actions, and can either help or prevent individuals from fulfilling their own or their teams’ potential.  

 

DPT students choose how to interpret challenges, opportunities, and setbacks. They exhibit differing mindsets that influence actions, successes and failures. Faculty mentorship and teaching environments are instrumental in fostering or deterring growth mindsets that encourage learning. Messaging that  ‘potential’ can change and grow, and that great things are accomplished through practice, risk taking, and learning is essential to adopting a mindset that can reinvent ‘self’ and strengthen influence. Shifting a mindset requires individuals to examine how they engage with others, evaluate opportunities, approach situations, and make decisions. Mentorship approached from a growth mindset can challenge students to break out of their comfort zone to stretch their capacity. This passionate dedication to stretching potential, especially when things are not going as expected, is a vital characteristic of effective mentorship. 

 

Jennifer Green-Wilson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Healthcare Studies at The College at Brockport. She is also the principal of the Institute for Business Literacy and Leadership (also known as the Leadership Institute); formerly the Director of the Institute for Leadership in Physical Therapy (LAMP) for HPA the Catalyst of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), as well as a former member of the Private Practice Section (PPS) Education Committee of the APTA. Recently serving as a Director on the Board of Directors of the APTA, she speaks nationally and internationally on topics related to leadership, business literacy, and management in healthcare, has been invited to submit short articles for APTA's 'Business Sense' section of PT in Motion, and was awarded a national research grant from the HPA Section in 2009. Additionally, she was awarded HPA the Catalyst's LAMPLighter Leadership Award in February 2014 and Rochester Hearing and Speech's James DeCaro Leadership Award in 2017.

 

Dr. Green-Wilson works with several physical therapist programs and diverse health care organizations across the country, helping to strengthen the development of practice management, business literacy, and leadership skills at entry-level and in contemporary practice. She also serves as the Secretary (immediate past Chair) on the Board of Directors of Rochester Hearing and Speech in Rochester, New York. Dr. Green-Wilson holds an Ed.D. degree in Executive Leadership from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, a MBA degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BS degree in physical therapy from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.