During our 2016 Annual Chapter Meeting in April, held during our IDEA Conference weekend, we announced the winners of AMTA-MA Chapter Awards. The awards included the President's Award, Meritorious Award, Volunteer of the Year Award and Distinguished Service Award. The Distinguished Service Award goes to an individual leader or presenter in the massage therapy profession who has provided outstanding service to our profession. Our 2016 Distinguished Service Award winner is Nancy Porambo! She's all of those things and so much more! We wanted her to share her accomplishments with you.
"During my presidency, besides making standard policy changes, I believe the most significant thing that I accomplished during my leadership was the major shift in the culture of the organization. The January meeting, in which all the Presidents attended, was a moving experience for all and set the foundation for a future of transparency, trust and respect. Massage therapy in health care was also at the top of my list. I attended numerous conferences that allowed me to communicate the benefits of massage and how it could effectively be applied within an integrative health care program. Health care today is currently focused on accomplishing a "Triple Aid" which is to increase the quality, satisfaction and cost of services to the consumer. Massage therapy, when applied alone or to an integrative application of health care, certainly meets the goals of the Triple Aim! I believe I have laid an adequate foundation for the Association to build relationships within health care in the future. I also worked with the American Medical Association's Physical Medical and Rehabilitation Workgroup in order to be sure that massage therapy would be properly described within the national billing code system. Additionally, the membership grew over 10,000 members during my 3 years in the Presidency!"