Agenda & Registration
Presenter Bios
Jerry Durham, MPT, is a physical therapist, speaker, author, and consultant with more than three decades of experience in physical therapy and health care. He is the founder of The Client Experience Company, where he works with practices and health care organizations to strengthen patient engagement, front desk operations, and the overall patient journey. Drawing on experience as a clinician, practice owner, and advisor, Durham focuses on operational systems that improve both patient outcomes and organizational performance.
Joseph A. Gallo, DSc, ATC, PT, is a professor and director of the Athletic Training Program at Salem State University. Over the course of his career, he has held faculty appointments in physical therapy and physical therapist assistant programs and has maintained clinical practice in multiple rehabilitation settings. His scholarly and continuing education work has focused extensively on electrophysical agents, therapeutic ultrasound, and neuromuscular electrical stimulation. Dr. Gallo has taught numerous continuing education workshops for rehabilitation professionals and is the author of the Clinical Guide to Electrotherapy and Therapeutic Ultrasound.
Rick Gawenda, PT, is a licensed physical therapist and the founder and president of Gawenda Seminars & Consulting, Inc. With more than 30 years of experience, he is widely recognized for his expertise in outpatient therapy compliance, coding, billing, documentation, and practice management. He previously served as Director of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Detroit Receiving Hospital and has presented nationally for many years on regulatory, reimbursement, and operational issues affecting rehabilitation providers. Gawenda is also the author of several publications focused on documentation and outpatient rehabilitation coding and billing.
Chad Madden, MSPT, is a physical therapist, entrepreneur, and educator who is the founder of Madden Physical Therapy and co-founder of Breakthrough. He has built a national profile in private practice growth, patient acquisition, and business strategy for rehabilitation organizations. In addition to leading his own practice, he works with physical therapy owners across the United States through education, coaching, and marketing strategy development. Madden's work emphasizes sustainable growth models that help practices expand access to conservative care while strengthening operational performance.
Dr. Adam Ruszkowski is a physical therapist, orthopedic clinical specialist, performance consultant, and the founder of AR Physical Therapy. In his practice, Dr. Ruszkowski uses biofeedback tools to help his patients achieve their rehab and performance goals. Outside the clinic, Dr. Ruszkowski hosts community seminars on injury prevention topics, including swimmer’s shoulder, overhead throwing mechanics, and ACL risk reduction.
Veena Somareddy is the CEO of Neuro Rehab VR, a VR healthcare start-up aimed at building virtual reality therapy exercises for rehabilitation. Her accolades include being recognized as a Top Innovator in North Texas, Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas honoree, and featured in Forbes and Cosmopolitan. Somareddy is also the recipient of a National Science Foundation grant and one of the 10 start-ups chosen to participate in the first Amazon Healthcare Accelerator. Using her many years of research and development experience in VR and AR she is helping to connect technology and healthcare to enhance patient care and rehabilitation outcomes greatly.
Jim Stoker, PT, DPT, is the CEO of Medical Billing Center (MBC), an outpatient therapy–specific billing and collections company founded by physical therapists in 2001. What sets Jim apart in the revenue cycle space is where he comes from: before he was optimizing billing for practices nationwide, he was a practice owner himself.Across more than 25 years of healthcare leadership, Jim served as Managing Partner and SVP of Clemson Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation and as South Carolina VP of Operations for ATI Physical Therapy. He and his partners grew their practice from 3 to 30 clinics, culminating in its acquisition by ATI in 2016. That operator's experience—spanning financial reporting, billing and collections, compliance, payer relations, and strategic planning—is exactly what he brings to MBC, where the mission is simple: help therapy practices stop leaving earned revenue on the table. His session reframes revenue cycle management as one of the most controllable levers a practice owner has for protecting and growing the bottom line.
Jim is a member of PPS and its Government Affairs Committee, and previously served as SC-APTA President, Vice President, Legislative Chair, and Reimbursement Chair. He is a Founding Board Member of the Clemson Free Clinic and Co-Founder of PlaySafe, a 501(c)(3) that provides Certified Athletic Trainers to secondary schools, and has lectured nationally in physical therapy clinical education for 10 years.
Jim holds a DPT from the University of Montana, an MA and BA in Exercise Science from Furman University, and a BS in Physical Therapy from the Medical University of South Carolina. When he's not helping practices recover revenue, you'll find him on the golf course, on the water fishing, out on the lake with his wife and kids—and, if the story's true, occasionally wrestling an alligator.