![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/magazine\/files\/2020\/04\/utc-mag-ingra-1200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not an overstatement when it comes to the retirement of Debbie Ingram after a career as a physical therapist, a teacher, establishing a new degree program and leading the effort that produced the first doctorate ever awarded by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.<\/p>\n
Ingram will retire in May. For all that she\u2019s accomplished, her entry into the field was almost coincidental. \u201cI was 13 years old when I first had the opportunity to see a physical therapist, and it was while watching a soap opera,\u201d Ingram says. \u201cMy grandmother watched every soap that was on TV and one of the characters was a physical therapist helping somebody with walking. My grandmother had rheumatoid arthritis and had such significant joint pain and loss of motion, she looked at me and said, \u2018I think that\u2019s a good career choice for you.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBelieve it or not, that\u2019s how my interest in physical therapy began.\u201d<\/p>\n
In high school, Ingram was involved in a teenage program for the March of Dimes. Terry Denniston, now chief of staff for the UTC chancellor and whose early career included social work, was the club\u2019s advisor and set up Ingram\u2019s visit to observe Bradley Memorial Hospital physical therapists at work. Ingram was hooked. After bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from Georgia State University, she joined Erlanger Medical Center.<\/p>\n
When asked to help establish a physical therapy program at UTC, she initially declined. She and her husband had just adopted their daughter, Alexandra, and Ingram planned to be a stay-at-home mom. \u201cBut I realized that was not me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Next thing she knew, she was teaching college students, pursuing a doctorate at UT Knoxville and serving as a member of the state\u2019s physical therapist licensing board. Then suddenly, her 3-year-old daughter began losing her hearing. That inspired Ingram\u2019s doctoral research on implementation of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. \u201cAll those things happening all at once\u2014how I stayed sane, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Ingram says.<\/p>\n
After years of service to the national UT Alumni Association, Ingram was elected its 2007-2008 president. \u201cI traveled throughout the country advocating for higher education and what our alumni mean to their institutions,\u201d Ingram says. She is the first and only UTAA president who was a member of faculty.<\/p>\n
Achieving a career with a lasting legacy makes her fortunate, Ingram says, \u201cI would wish for everyone what I feel, which is to be able to look back and say, \u2018I sure am glad I did that.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That\u2019s not an overstatement when it comes to the retirement of Debbie Ingram after an impressive career at UTC.\n","protected":false},"author":1300,"featured_media":344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9291,101004],"tags":[],"coauthors":[100993],"class_list":{"0":"post-278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-notabilis","8":"category-spring-2020-edition","9":"cs-entry","10":"cs-video-wrap"},"yoast_head":"\n