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Carmen DiGiovine readies to ‘guide ship’

Carmen DiGiovine readies to ‘guide ship’

WASHINGTON – RESNA has spoken and Carmen DiGiovine, PhD, ATP/SMS, RET, has been named its new president-elect. HME News spoke to DiGiovine, who will serve two years as president-elect before becoming president, about what kind of leader he will be and how many paths there are to specializing in rehab engineering.

HME News: What sparked your interest in rehab engineering?

Carmen DiGiovine: When I went into engineering, I didn’t know which field I wanted to go into exactly and I got connected with the wheelchair racing team at the University of Illinois. I was doing an engineering project for them and thought, hey this rehab engineering stuff seems to be pretty cool. It puts together people and technology, and I like that.

HME: What do you see as your role as president-elect?

DiGiovine: I feel like my role is to listen these first two years. And then moving forward, it’s to take a look at what members want and to guide the ship. As president, you may want a lot of change and you may want to do it yourself, but really the best way to get things done is to listen to what everybody wants to do in the organization and then figure out a way to be strategic about it and then move the organization in that direction.

HME: You’re an associate professor at Ohio State University, what are your thoughts on the next generations of ATPs and SMSs?

DiGiovine: (There’s) the graduate level perspective and the undergraduate perspective, and then the fun part is, is there an opportunity at the community college level or through a professional organization? Is there a pathway for somebody who wants to get into this field with a high school degree or early on in their college career – is there a pathway for them? I think that’s the exciting part about this field – that there's opportunities for individuals to get involved professionally no matter what path works best for you.

 

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