It's official: APTA is now 100,000 members strong.

Just how many people is 100,000? It's more than would fit in the Rose Bowl, or the Cotton Bowl, or Wembley Stadium in London. The APTA population is larger than the population of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and just about the size of Charleston, South Carolina, or Green Bay, Wisconsin. It's a big number, to be sure, but more important for APTA, it's a number that represents an opportunity for the physical therapy profession to give even stronger voice to its commitment to patient-centered care.

The association reached the milestone on August 4, after a spring and summer campaign highlighting the ways APTA membership benefits both the individual member and the profession as a whole. The accomplishment comes as the association begins readying itself for its centennial in 2021, and amid a rapidly changing health care environment.

"I could not be more pleased that APTA has reached this incredible milestone," said APTA President Sharon L. Dunn, PT, PhD, in a news release. "Membership enables personal development and accelerates our profession's collective progress. With health care rapidly evolving, there's never been a more important time to combine our strengths in pursuit of APTA's bold vision of a society transformed through optimized movement."

The physical therapist whose membership got APTA to the 100,000-member milestone is Sam Seybold, PT, DPT, of Guthrie, Oklahoma. Seybold rejoined APTA after taking an assistant professor position at Langston University.

“With rapidly changing technology and research, now more than ever it’s important to keep up and stay abreast of all the new stuff,” said Seybold, who cited the camaraderie of interdisciplinary health care teams as 1 of his favorite aspects of being a physical therapist.

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