New leadership appointed for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Beverly Roberts-Atwater, DO, PhD, has been appointed Interim Chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation effective Oct. 1 after Antonio Quidgley-Nevares, MD, stepped down from the post.
“Dr. Quidgley-Nevares is an outstanding clinician and pain management specialist who has been an EVMS faculty since 2004 and Chair of the department since 2011,” says Alfred Abuhamad, MD, Interim President, Provost and Dean of the School of Medicine. “We are indebted to Dr. Quidgley-Nevares for his stellar service as Chair and for his contributions to medical education and clinical care. We are fortunate to have someone with his expertise and experience.”
Dr. Quidgley-Nevares, an Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, will remain on the medical school faculty.
Dr. Abuhamad says EVMS is fortunate to have someone of the caliber of Dr. Roberts-Atwater to fill this leadership position.
“Dr. Roberts-Atwater is an exceptionally talented physician and administrator who is passionate about the care of her patients and the education of students, residents and fellows,” Dr. Abuhamad says. “She has earned a national reputation as an outstanding physician educator, bringing her influence to important organizations within her specialty and in the process drawing positive national attention to EVMS.”
Dr. Roberts-Atwater, who had been Vice Chair of the department, says she is “humbled and honored” to be appointed Interim Chair.
“I will work tirelessly in efforts to continue the mission and vision of this great institution,” she says. “I am delighted to serve at the request of Dr. Abuhamad and his leadership team and will continue to strengthen the department’s community engagement activities as they relate to services for the physically disabled and chronically impaired populations in Hampton Roads. I am grateful to have served under Dr. Antonio Quidgley –Nevares and to have this opportunity to continue to strengthen the department’s training, educational and scholarship endeavors.”
Dr. Roberts-Atwater came to EVMS a decade ago from a faculty position at the University of Michigan, School of Medicine. She has directed the EVMS Spasticity Clinic since 2012 and was Director of the department’s residency training program until 2019 when she stepped down to find time for her duties at the national level.
She is the first woman and the first African American to serve as Chair of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, leading the board that oversees initial and ongoing certification for all U.S. osteopathic physicians in physical medicine and rehabilitation. She completed and led the organization’s first Virtual Oral Examination for diplomats this past summer. In August, she was re-elected to a second two-year term as chair.
Dr. Roberts-Atwater also is a member of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Review Committee for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, which certifies all allopathic and osteopathic residency training programs in the U.S. She began a six-year term on the committee in 2019.
She maintains DO and MD board certifications in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Dr. Roberts-Atwater holds a PhD in Educational Psychology and was a practicing psychologist before earning her medical degree at Michigan State University. She completed her residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute and a Health Policy Fellowship at the Ohio University/New York Institute of Technology.