2008 40 Under 40 Honoree: Becky McKnight

“As a teacher, I am fortunate to have the opportunity every day to influence students. I encourage them to grow and develop personally (and) prepare them to function as health care providers in the community,” she says.

Her role at the college has her fielding a lot of questions from area physical therapy professionals.

“That sense of personal satisfaction that you give back to your community is a really cool byproduct,” McKnight says. “I know I’m elevating our professional standards by being that resource.”

She enjoys sharing her leadership vision at OTC. “The clearest example I have of that is that we’ve decided to make some significant changes of the curriculum in our program. I have a very clear vision of what that should look like,” McKnight says. “I know that if I were to just run with that, I could be done and off to other things in a short time frame. (But) Instead of just blowing through those curriculum changes, I’m slowing down to share with (my faculty).”

McKnight has held leadership roles through her involvement with the Missouri Physical Therapy Association, which she has served as chairwoman of the southwest district and as director of the MPTA Board of Directors.

At the national level, she served on the committee that revised the Normative Model of Physical Therapy Assistant Education, a publication by the American Physical Therapy Association that provides guidelines to be used in the design of curriculum for physical therapy assistants.

McKnight, who holds a bachelor’s degree in allied health/physical therapy from St. Louis University and a master’s degree in physical therapy from Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in Provo, Utah, has specific goals this year.

Those include finishing the curriculum revision process for the physical therapy assistant’s program at OTC and furthering the cause of educating assistants nationwide through the establishment of a network of leaders.

Double Play

Birth date: Feb. 12, 1969

Family: Our family is usually described as the Brady Bunch. My husband, Mike, and I married nine years ago. He’s a consultant pharmacist in southwest Missouri. At the time Mike and I got married, I had two daughters and he had three sons. … We had a little girl to round out the number of children to six. My oldest stepson, Brett, is 22 years old. My stepson, Brantley, is currently going to school at OTC. My oldest daughter, Crystal Settlemoir, is 19 and is attending Missouri State University as a presidential scholar. My second daughter, Alicea Settlemoir, is 17 and is a junior at Forsyth High School. My youngest stepson, Bren, is 17 and is a junior at Branson High School. Our youngest daughter, Jessica, is 5 and will be starting kindergarten next year.

Philosophy to live/work by: Seek truth, pursue excellence, live authentically and love unconditionally.

Information accurate at the time of the honor.