The University of Alabama has selected founding directors for its new occupational and physical therapy degree programs, which are slated to begin enrolling students within the next several years.
Dr. Elizabeth Barstow will served as director of the Occupational Therapy Program, and Dr. Robert Dale will serve as director of the Physical Therapy Program. Both appointments are effective Aug. 1, 2026.
Barstow and Dale will lead the development and launch of their respective programs. Each are eight-semester doctoral degree programs and will be housed within UA’s College of Community Health Sciences. The programs represent an important expansion of the University’s health professions portfolio and align closely with the College’s mission to improve health outcomes across Alabama and the Southeast, particularly in rural and underserved communities.
“Their extensive experience leading innovative academic programs, building interdisciplinary partnerships and mentoring learners make them well suited to guide these new programs from inception, through accreditation, to their launch and well into the future,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS.
Barstow, who brings more than two decades of administrative, clinical and administrative experience to the role, is a professor of occupational therapy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she has served in multiple leadership capacities, currently as director of the Low Vision Rehabilitation Graduate Certificate program. The practice-oriented certificate degree program prepares occupational therapists to provide comprehensive intervention to adults with visual impairment from age-related eye diseases and brain injuries. She is certified as a low-vision specialist.
Additionally, Barstow played a central role in curriculum design, program assessment and accreditation, and provided leadership in the successful transition of UAB’s master’s-level occupational therapy program to a doctoral-level program.
Barstow’s work focuses on functional vision, disability and participation, and community-based practice, with a particular emphasis on access to care and workforce development in rural settings. Nationally and internationally recognized for her scholarship, Barstow is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association and a frequent recipient of teaching, service and scholarly awards.
Dale, a nationally recognized leader in physical therapy, is professor and chair of the Department of Physical Therapy for the College of Health Professions at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. He is also director of the department’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program.
Before joining UTHSC, Dale was professor and chair of the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. He also served as director of the department’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program.
Dale’s clinical expertise and research focuses on experimental sports-related and orthopedic areas of tendinopathy, rotator cuff fatigue, kinematics and kinetic analysis pertaining to the lumbar spine and thermoregulation. He has contributed to multiple textbook chapters pertaining to orthopedic and sports rehabilitation, exercise physiology and motor control. An active researcher, Dale has published numerous peer-reviewed publications and has presented his research nationally and internationally.
He is certified as a myofascial trigger point therapist, orthopedic certified specialist and as a sports certified specialist. In addition, he is athletic trainer certified and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist.
Dale earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of South Alabama and a master’s in education in exercise science from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He earned his PhD in kinesiology, with a specialization in exercise physiology, from UA; a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga; and an MBA from the University of South Alabama.