Hybrid pathway graduate Shadoe Beecher DPT ’25 aims to bring her hard-earned expertise to a rural community forced to travel hours to the nearest physical therapist.

BY ANDREW FAUGHT

TINY ELLINGTON, MO., POPULATION 1,000 is most famous for its Sweetwater Mine, which produces some of the world’s purest lead concentrates. But, miners needing physical therapy treatment don’t have many options. The nearest big city, St. Louis, is more than two hours away by car.

Shadoe Beecher DPT ’25 is seeing to it that help is closer to home. She’s using her newly minted degree — thanks to the hybrid residential/on-campus DPT pathway  — to provide care not only to miners, but to all residents in the underserved southeastern Missouri hamlet.

“You have to be diverse in your treatments, because you never know who’s going to come in,” says Beecher, who plans to work at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center after taking her physical therapy board exam in July. “We get everyone from babies to people who are elderly, because we’re in such a rural area, and there aren’t a lot of specialty clinics.”

Born Out of an Injury

Flexibility was key for Beecher, who was 29 when she enrolled at USC after conducting a Google search. The mother of two was able to complete the program even while pregnant. She says that faculty accommodated her every step of the way.

“I appreciated the fact that they’re trying to help people like me, who don’t have the opportunity to do this sort of thing under normal circumstances,” she says.

Beecher’s physical therapy ambitions started in her junior year of high school, when she tore the meniscus in her knee while playing volleyball. A physical therapist helped her avoid surgery, and Beecher was able to return to the court six weeks later.

“I was pretty upset about the ordeal, but after my first treatment with a physical therapist, he said, ‘So long as you put in the hard work, we’re going to give you all of the tools to get back to where you need to be,’” she recalls.

The Importance of Nurturing Relationships with Faculty

Prior to earning her DPT, Beecher was a physical therapy assistant in Piedmont, Mo., where she worked at an outpatient clinic and a nursing home. She holds an associate’s degree in premed and physical therapy as well as an undergraduate degree in health science from Central Methodist University.

In her new role at Poplar Bluff, Beecher will provide empathetic patient care to individuals navigating the same uncertainty that she did as a high school athlete.

“A lot of people are nervous because they don’t know what physical therapy entails,” she says. “You are responsible for being the friendly face that reassures them that you’re going to do the best that you can to get them back on track.”

To students who are considering a DPT education, some of them mid-career, Beecher says nurturing a relationship with professors is key.

“You need to be open with them about the situations that you’re facing, because they do care about you,” she says. “The quicker you can be honest with them about what’s going on in your life, the quicker they can help you. They have a full support team to help you through the smallest to the biggest challenges.”