Elizabeth Noble Award
Ann Dunbar
Reflections on growing alongside the profession and helping shape the future of pelvic health physical therapy.
Read Her Story →
Celebrating 50 Years
Pelvic Health Physical Therapy
1977 — 2027
50 Years of Moving Pelvic Health Forward
Celebrating the people, patients, discoveries, and ideas that shaped our past—and the community building what comes next.
50
Years of Progress
A Milestone Worth Celebrating
Five decades of advancing pelvic health.
What began as a small community of physical therapists with a shared vision has grown into a national and international professional community advancing pelvic and abdominal health physical therapy through education, research, advocacy, and clinical practice.
Our 50th anniversary is an opportunity to honor the people who brought us here—and imagine what pelvic health physical therapy can become over the next 50 years.
Our Story
From an idea to a movement.
The Academy's story mirrors the growth of pelvic health physical therapy itself—a specialty that expanded through curiosity, collaboration, research, advocacy, and the determination of generations of clinicians.
1977
It Begins
Elizabeth Noble helps establish the Section on Obstetrics and Gynecology, creating a professional home for physical therapists interested in advancing care in this emerging field.
1980s
A Specialty Takes Shape
Clinicians build educational programs, share new clinical approaches, and create professional networks that help expand recognition of pelvic and obstetric physical therapy.
1990s
Growing Evidence & Education
Research, continuing education, specialty practice, and professional engagement continue to expand.
2000s
Expanding the Profession
The organization grows alongside new research, professional standards, educational pathways, and increasing public awareness of pelvic health.
Today
Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy
Today, the Academy supports clinicians, educators, researchers, students, and advocates working across the full spectrum of pelvic and abdominal health physical therapy.
2027
Celebrating 50 Years
Fifty years after its founding, the Academy honors the people who shaped the profession while looking toward its next chapter.
The Woman Who Started It All
Elizabeth Noble
Founder Physical Therapist Author Pioneer
Elizabeth Noble helped create a professional community for physical therapists committed to improving care related to pregnancy, childbirth, pelvic health, and women's health.
Her leadership helped lay the foundation for a specialty that would grow far beyond its earliest beginnings. Today, her legacy continues through the clinicians, researchers, educators, and leaders who advance pelvic health physical therapy around the world.
Explore Her Legacy → Voices From Our History
Explore All Stories 50 years, told by the people who lived it.
Elizabeth Noble Award
Patricia King, PT, PhD
A career connecting research, manual therapy, clinical practice, and pelvic health.
Read Her Story →
Trailblazer Spotlight
A Legacy of Leadership
Meet the individuals whose ideas, mentorship, advocacy, and scholarship helped move the specialty forward.
Read the Story → Scholarship Through the Decades
The journal that documented a specialty.
As pelvic health physical therapy evolved, the Journal of Women's & Pelvic Health Physical Therapy helped capture the discoveries, clinical questions, evidence, and ideas that moved the profession forward.
50 Volumes
5 Decades of Scholarship
∞ Ideas for the Future
Why 50 Years Matters
Every advancement has a human story.
Behind every course taught, study published, guideline developed, and clinician trained is a person seeking better care.
“
For years, I thought this was something I simply had to live with.
Pelvic health physical therapy can transform how people move, live, recover, and participate in the moments that matter most.
Then → Now
Look how far we've come.
Over five decades, an emerging specialty became a broad professional community influencing education, research, advocacy, clinical practice, and patient care.
Then
Section on Obstetrics & Gynecology
An emerging specialty
Small professional networks
Early educational resources
Primarily obstetric and women's health focus
Now
Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy
Thousands of members and professionals
National and international community
Extensive specialty education and certification pathways
Pelvic health across the lifespan and populations
Our Community
50 years. Thousands of people. One community.
The Academy's history belongs to everyone who has taught, learned, volunteered, researched, advocated, mentored, led, participated, and cared for patients along the way.
A profession built by people willing to imagine better care.
Celebrate With Us
The celebration is just getting started.
Join Academy members and the broader pelvic health community throughout 2027 for special programs, celebrations, education, stories, and opportunities to reconnect.
February 2027 · Philadelphia
50th Anniversary Celebration at CSM
Special programming, recognition, community, awards, and opportunities to celebrate five decades together.
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May 2027 · Virtual
50th Anniversary Pop-Up
A special virtual program bringing together education, reflection, and ideas for the future of pelvic health physical therapy.
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Summer 2027
Anniversary Community Event
Details coming soon.
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Fall 2027
Looking Toward the Next 50 Years
A future-focused program exploring where pelvic health physical therapy goes next.
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1977 → 2027 → 2077
Our history is still being written.
For 50 years, our community has challenged what was known, expanded what was possible, and helped shape pelvic health physical therapy.
The next chapter belongs to the clinicians, researchers, educators, students, advocates, and patients who will continue moving pelvic health forward.
Here's to the Next 50 →