BACKGROUND
Ms Childers received her Bachelor’s degree in Physiotherapy from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. There she worked for 2 years as a Junior Physiotherapist rotating between all the departments of a busy acute hospital.
In 1998 she moved to the United States with her husband then serving active duty in the United States Air Force. Based in Utah she completed the requirements to practice in the United States and worked for 8 years primarily in the Skilled Nursing arena developing a passion and specialty in Geriatrics. While in Utah she earned her Master’s degree in Gerontology from the University of Utah and is currently working on her PhD in Health Psychology from Walden University.
In 2005 Ms Childers became a Geriatric Clinical specialist (GCS) the same year she moved to California to continue working as rehabilitation director in skilled nursing facilities. After 14 years in the skilled nursing environment and a wealth of experience with the Geriatric population, she transitioned to a full time faculty role at the University of St. Augustine but maintains her clinical skills through home health visits which are predominantly to the Geriatric population.
Ms Childers is currently developing her research agenda which involve the Geriatric community and fall prevention, hopefully to develop a more appropriate measurement tool for the community dwelling elderly population and to include the impact of fear of falling on fall risk in this population.
Ms Childers teaches on the triad of neuromuscular courses with responsibility for Neuromuscular 3, she also teaches Geriatrics and guest lectures for fall prevention in the wellness class. She is a member of the San Diego Fall Prevention task force and takes students each term to perform fall screening at local events. She is also an active member of the FSBPT, writing exam questions for the national PTA exam and assisting with exam development committees, she also writes exam questions for the specialist GCS exam. In addition she has served as the Clinician team member for several accreditation site visits for CAPTE.
