Dr. Roberts-Atwater promoted to Vice Chair of PM&R
Beverly Roberts-Atwater, DO, PhD, Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, has been named Vice Chair of her department.
Dr. Roberts-Atwater’s promotion to second-in-command in the department is a logical next career step, says Antonio Quidgley-Nevares, MD, Associate Professor and Chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
“Since her arrival at EVMS nearly 10 years ago, Dr. Roberts-Atwater has been a superb physician, educator and role model,” Dr. Quidgley-Nevares says. “She has earned this advancement through her dedication to our department, our residents, our institution and our profession. She is an untiring advocate for her patients and for the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation.”
Richard V. Homan, MD, President and Provost and Dean of the School of Medicine, supported her promotion.
“This is a well-earned advancement for Dr. Roberts-Atwater,” Dr. Homan says. “She is an outstanding clinical educator who has demonstrated her prowess as a natural leader. I am thrilled to see her attain this important position.”
“I am honored to be appointed to serve as Vice Chair of the department and to have the support and confidence of President Homan and Dr. Quidgley-Nevares,” Dr. Roberts-Atwater says. “I look forward to assisting in guiding the ongoing developments, leveraging the required resources and adding to the strength of the department. I will strive to do my best in serving the unique needs in an effort to continue to provide outstanding education and training for our residents, promote patient safety and outreach opportunities to our community partners.”
Dr. Roberts-Atwater has earned a national reputation as an outstanding physician educator in the specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation.
She is completing a two-year term as Chair of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. In that capacity, she leads the board that oversees initial and ongoing certification for all U.S. osteopathic physicians in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
She is the first woman and the first African American to hold this national position.
She also is in the midst of a six-year term as a member of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) Residency Review Committee for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, (ACGME) which certifies all allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) residency training programs in the U.S. She earned and maintains both DO and MD board certifications in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
At EVMS she has directed the Spasticity Clinic since 2012. She was Director of the PM&R residency training program until 2019 when she stepped down to find time for her new duties at the national level.
Dr. Roberts-Atwater followed a non-traditional path to medicine.
She earned a PhD in Educational Psychology and practiced as a psychologist before returning to school to earn her medical degree at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. After completing her residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the John F. Kennedy (JFK), Robert Wood Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, NJ, she completed a Health Policy Fellowship at the Ohio University/New York Institute of Technology.
Before she came to EVMS, Dr. Roberts-Atwater was an Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University Of Michigan School Of Medicine, and a visiting lecturer at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) in Rootstown, Ohio and at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Lake Erie, Pennsylvania.