The IU School of Health & Human Sciences Graduate Health Professions programs made a strong showing in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings of Best Graduate Schools. Breaking into the top 50 for the first time, the Physician Assistant (PA) Studies Program ranked No. 48. The Occupational Therapy (OT) Program claimed the 37th spot, and the Physical Therapy (PT) Program ranked 46th. All three programs earned the rankings in their respective fields, which are ranked separately by U.S. News.
“It’s really exciting to be on the leading edge of the field and to be recognized nationally for advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning in physician assistant studies,” said Lauren Gilliam, MPAS, CHA/PA-C, clinical assistant professor and program director of the IU PA program. “We’re attracting high-performing students who have heard about the strength of our program and want to come here.”
Last year, more than 1,400 applicants vied for just 44 spots in the IU PA program, which started in 2013 and graduated its first cohort in 2015. One of just 312 PA programs in the nation, the IU program is led by faculty engaged in novel best practices in teaching and learning. During the past year, IU PA faculty have presented at national conferences on topics in PA education, including clinical reasoning and best practices in ensuring student success and tracking student performance.
In recent years, the IU Occupational Therapy Program, the top-ranked OT program in Indiana, has reinvented its program to combine excellence in teaching and learning with a strong focus on community-engaged research and service. A self-directed capstone project allows students to gain leadership, communication and professional skills in areas of interest. The program has a strong network of central Indiana community partners, including Flanner House, Overdose Lifeline and its affiliates, Camp Mariposa and Heart Rock Recovery Center.
Within the past three years, the program has added new state-of-the-art facilities, including an activities of daily living apartment specially designed for instruction. This year, OT students are learning functional anatomy with four new anatomage tables—a human cadaver-based 3D medical education tool.
“We train our students to excel in the traditional medical model of occupational therapy, while working to ensure they have the skills to extend the OT profession into the community as well,” said Julie Bednarski, OTD, MHS, OTR, clinical associate professor and OT program director. “Thanks to the research we’re conducting and the relationships we’ve built, some of our community partners now have occupational therapists integrated into their services.”
The IU Physical Therapy Program, launched in the late 1950s, is the longest-standing PT program in Indiana. A strong clinical education curriculum is a hallmark of the program, with program graduates achieving a 100% all-time pass rate on the national physical therapy licensing exam. Last year the mean score for the class of 2024 was 50 points above the national average.
The program recently moved into new facility space that includes a high-tech gait lab and functional assessment areas for research.
“We have several active research labs that engage students in the research process with more than 20 students per year over the past several years traveling to national and international conferences to present research data from their work in faculty labs,” said Kristine Miller, PT, PhD, associate professor and director of the PT program.
Expanding IU PT’s educational offerings, the program, in collaboration with Indiana University Health, will launch a 16-month PT residency program in August 2026. One of the few PT residency programs in the Midwest, the program will include specialization in physical therapy for neurological conditions, cardiovascular conditions and wound care. The goal of the residency program is to increase the number of specially trained physical therapists in these fields of practice.
All three program directors agree that support from the School of Health & Human Sciences and the university contributes to the programs’ continuing success.
“We are led by strategic thinkers who keep us focused on a vision for the future,” said Gilliam. “Our leaders motivate us to think about how we can lead as educators in our field and instill in us the belief that the moment we’re staying the same is the moment we’re falling behind.”