The 2022 ARP President’s & Merit Awards

Outside her clinical duties, Ms. Donaldson enjoys precepting and teaching. She collaborates with the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) registry and other research projects with her team and volunteers with the ACR/ARP on the Pediatric Rheumatology Symposium (PRSYM) Planning Committee and the Workforce Solutions Committee. Ms. Donaldson was a faculty moderator for The Training Rheum earlier this year.

Some of her professional goals are to increase rheumatology awareness and education for medical trainees and to improve training for rheumatology professionals to help ensure a sustainable workforce and support better access to care for patients.

“I am honored to receive this award. I have been extremely fortunate to have an outstanding team and supportive mentors and am very thankful for the resources the ACR provides to members and patients,” says Ms. Donaldson. ”It has been very rewarding to volunteer with the ARP/ACR and to help support training for advanced practice providers in rheumatology. I am excited for our field and allied health professionals’ roles in improving patient access and care.”

When she is not at work, Ms. Donaldson enjoys road and gravel cycling, mountain biking, hiking, camping, reading and traveling.

ARP MERIT AWARDS

The ARP Merit Awards recognize outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology.

ARP Master Awards

The ARP’s highest honor—the Master Award—went to two ARP members in 2022 for their outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology: Janet L. Poole, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, professor, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and Jan K. Richardson, PT, PhD, OCS, FAPTA, chief medical officer for Medical Outcome Indicators, Washington, Pa.

Janet L. Poole, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, is a professor, division chief and director of the Occupational Therapy Graduate Program in the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine at the University of New Mexico.

Dr. Poole began working with people with arthritis very early in her career as an occupational therapist at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Her clinical interest in, and dedication to, people with scleroderma was fostered by Thomas Medsger, MD, and Virginia Steen, MD, at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has been inspired and supported by other rheumatologists to remain committed to people with scleroderma.

As an occupational therapist, Dr. Poole is invested in the impact of scleroderma on daily life activities. She teaches rheumatology to occupational therapy students and has involved them in research projects. Dr. Poole routinely speaks at meetings of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) to educate therapists on the role of occupational therapy in scleroderma and other rheumatic conditions and was named a fellow of the AOTA and inducted into the Academy of Research for the American Occupational Therapy Foundation.