Profiles of Excellence: the Foundation continues to highlight its recipients' accomplishments and research in this series, "Profiles of Excellence." (Foundation for Physical Theraphy).

Suzann K Campbell, PT, PhD, FAPTA, Professor and Head of the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was awarded a $620,000 grant, "Norming a Diagnostic Motor Scale for Infants," from the National Institutes of Health in October 2001. Dr Campbell is a recipient of 2 grants from the Foundation for Physical Therapy. The first, awarded in 1980, was for planning a longitudinal study of infants at high risk for developmental problems. The other, awarded in 1990, was for a pilot study to assess the scaling properties of a neonatal motor scale, the Test of Infant Motor Performance (TIMP), that she and her colleagues developed between Found-ation grants. The data collected from research funded by the 1990 grant led directly to Dr Campbell's first grant from NIH to establish the psychometric quality of the TIMP, as well as to her recently awarded grant. The NIH grant will be used to assess performance on the TIMP and a short version of the test, the Tailored Test, in 1,200 infants from all racial/ethnic groups in 12 nursery settings across the United States. Following completion of this project, the TIMP will be validated for use by therapists to screen for and diagnose motor developmental delay in infants from 34 weeks postconception to 4 months past term.

Mary E Gannotti, PT, PhD, a Research Fellow at Yale University, School of Medicine, and Assistant Professor at the University of Hartford, published 2 articles this fall, "Content and Construct Validity of a Spanish Translation of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory for Children Living in Puerto Rico" in Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics (volume 20, number 4, 2001), and "Sociocultural Influences on Disability Status in Puerto Rican Children" in the September 2001 issue of Physical Therapy. Dr Gannotti's research focuses on the validity of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) for Puerto Rican children, and how the Puerto Rican values of anonar (pampering or nurturing behaviors) and sobre protectiva (overprotectiveness) affect parental expectations for the capability of children with disabilities. According to Dr Gannotti's research, these values should be considered in interpreting results from the PEDI and in establishing plans of care. Dr Gannotti received funding from the Foundation for her doctoral studies on "The Validity and Reliability of the PEDI in Rural Puerto Rico" in 1996. The articles came from research supported by the Foundation for Physical Therapy and the University of Connecticut. Another article in press in Social Science and Medicine, "Puerto Rican Understandings of Childhood Disability: Methods for the Cultural Validation of Standardized Measures of Child Health," also is based on Dr Gannotti's Foundation-funded research.

Dr. David Russ, PT, PhD, is a post-doctoral research associate under Dr Jane Kent-Braun in the University of Massachusetts, Department of Exercise Science. His doctoral dissertation, "Fatigue in Human Skeletal Muscle: Relationships to Stimulation Parameters, Force Output, and Metabolic Demand," was submitted to the faculty of the University of Delaware in Spring 2001. "Metabolic Costs of Isometric Force Generation and Maintenance in Human Skeletal Muscle," a paper from his Foundation-funded dissertation research, has been accepted for publication in the American Journal of Physiology. Dr Russ is a 1998 and 1999 Foundation PODS scholarship recipient.