Sue Scherer is both a physical therapist and community leader. In her 17 years as a faculty member and administrator at Regis University, she developed a strategic vision and scope of community health promotion work. She led a University-wide community health initiative and collaborated with internal stakeholders, organizational partners and community members to bring new opportunities that mutually benefit the community and University.
As a physical therapist, she focused on prevention and rehabilitation of cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, including diabetes, teaching these topics as a physical therapy faculty member. She advanced the role of physical therapists in cardiovascular risk assessment including several publications that have been widely circulated in physical therapy practice. She expanded and taught health promotion, exercise prescription and community wellness areas of the curriculum for DPT students.
She is highly collaborative and works across disciplines. She proposed and led the development of the Interprofessional committee, including the faculty members in the schools of physical therapy, pharmacy, nursing and counseling to provide academic activities including interprofessional ethics and clinical simulation.
Her doctorate in Health and Behavioral Science (HBS) grounded her in a systems approach to understanding health and society which allowed her to successfully lead the Cultivate Health initiative, a four-year community engagement project with a budget over $900,000. These efforts foster in-depth knowledge that links community health and health care.
Civic minded and community focused, Sue Scherer brought coherence to University efforts to become a mature, community-engaged organization. She helped Regis build authentic, collaborative relationships and speak for equity and justice to facilitate University and community work — all for a common good of our communities.
