The DPT Advisory Board was integral to the planning and development of WMU's Department of Physical Therapy and the Doctor of Physical Therapy program.
WMU DPT Advisory Board members:
Will Arbogast
Melissa Brown
Michael Busha
Ravi Singh
Carol Sundberg
Adam Swain
Karen VanLent
Leah Walters
Board Bios
Will Arbogast
Will Arbogast is a native of West Virginia and an alumnus of West Virginia Wesleyan and Western Michigan University where he earned a MA in Athletic Training. He joined the WMU Sports Medicine Clinic in 1989, became the director in 1999 and where he still works today. Beginning in 2018, Will serves on the Executive Team of Sindecuse Health Center. He has continued to provide educational opportunities such as guest lecturer, educational in-services, and working with Graduate Athletic Training Students, Undergraduate Athletic Training Students as well as others. He has developed programs with the dance department including free injury clinics, job specific abilities testing for WMU employees, outreach clinics as well as working in the community with the Kalamazoo Safe Kids Coalition and various sports teams from WMU’s Football team and area Rocket Football teams, and baseball, hockey, wrestling, and tennis teams to name a few. Will has participated in various continuing education courses throughout his career which has fortified his knowledge base in the Athletic Training field.
Melissa Brown
Melissa Brown has been a physical therapist for 22 years. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, and both her MPT and DPT from Temple University. She worked in acute care in Philadelphia with orthopedic and oncology patients, and was a senior PT at Northwestern University Hospital in Chicago specializing in PT for oncology patients, patients after organ transplants and wound care. She has also taught human anatomy as a teaching assistant in physical therapy schools at the graduate level, and as a course instructor at the community college level.
Melissa has worked in both acute care and outpatient physical therapy in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in areas including orthopedics, neurological rehabilitation, vestibular rehabilitation and pediatrics. She lives in Kalamazoo with her husband and their two teenagers.
Michael Busha
Dr. Michael Busha is a native of south Texas and an alumnus of University of Texas Southwestern Medical School where he graduated in 2001. After medical school, he completed a three-year family medicine residency in Greenwood, South Carolina and an obstetrics fellowship at the Spartanburg Regional Hospital System in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In 2010, Dr. Busha earned his MBA from George Washington University. He and his wife, also a family physician, have three children.
In addition to his extensive work in medical education, Dr. Busha has also been a leader in the clinical setting. From 2015-17, he served as the medical director for quality in primary care and ambulatory services for IU Health Physicians, with a focus on value-based compensation models and integration of quality programs into patient care infrastructure. At WMed, Dr. Busha is responsible for the oversight, coordination and staff support of the medical school’s MD program, as well as oversight of other degree, certificate and continuing education programs.
Carol Sundberg
Dr. Carol Sundberg is the director of the WMU Unified Clinics, a large multi-specialty group practice that provides clinical training experiences for students in WMU's College of Health and Human Services by meeting authentic community needs in an outpatient clinical setting. Dr. Sundberg is also the director of the Center for Disability Services, a program that provides a range of services for adults with Alzheimer’s, dementia, neurodevelopmental and neurocognitive disorders.
A healthcare administrator for more than 30 years, her undergraduate and graduate degrees are in applied behavior analysis, and her doctorate is in public policy and administration. She is fully licensed as a social worker and a qualified intellectual disability professional. She has been the principal investigator for numerous grants and contracts at WMU in the areas of health care coordination, long-term care and community inclusion for persons with intellectual disabilities.
Adam Swain
Adam graduated in 1986 from Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts, with a BS in Physical Therapy. He became a certified athletic trainer in 1992, after completing coursework and internship hours at Northwestern University and Purdue University. In 1992, he also completed his certification as a strength and conditioning specialist. In 1994, he completed a two-year manual therapy and medical exercise therapy residency program with Bjorn Svendsen, Dsc, PT in Lansing , Michigan. He became an orthopedic certified specialist in 1997, and is also a fellow in the American Academy of Manual Physical Therapists.
In 2011, he was certified in the McKenzie Method of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy. In 2014, he became certified in dry needling, through the AAMT/Dry Needling Institute. Adam has lectured and been published on many topics in orthopedic and sports medicine. He is an active member of the APTA, and serves on the Board of Physical Therapy for Michigan.
Karen VanLent
Karen graduated from Grand Valley State University with a master’s degree in physical therapy in 1995. She has worked in acute care at Bronson Methodist Hospital since graduation. She was a staff therapist from 1995 until 1997 with a special interest in ICU, trauma and burn rehab. In 1997 she became an acute care clinical specialist, which included orientation and clinical training of new staff along with full time clinical responsibilities. She was a senior physical therapist from 1998 until 2002 while coordinating clinical education at the site and maintaining 50% of a clinical patient assignment. She took a newly created acute care rehabilitation staff development iInstructor position in 2018 before becoming the rehabilitation staff development instructor for the entire Bronson system.
When not at work, Karen enjoys spending time with her husband (Marc), and teenage children (Lauren and Carter), golfing, boating, cooking, and traveling.
Leah Walters
Leah (Welch) Walters is a native of the Kalamazoo/Portage area and graduated from Portage Northern High School. She attended Indiana University-Bloomington before graduating from PT school at University of Illinois-Chicago in 1989. She and her husband, Joe opened Indiana Physical Therapy in Ft. Wayne, Indiana before selling the business and moving back to southwest Michigan to open Physical Therapy ONE.
Now with three locations and 22 employees, PT1 has provided high-quality outpatient physical therapy for more than 21 years. She has two children, Grant and Paige, and has served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations including the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre, Hospital Hospitality House, Southridge Reformed Church, Civic Theatre Foundation and Junior League of Kalamazoo.