Roberta Ann Newton ‘69 became interested in science at a time when the field attracted few women. Now an internationally recognized expert in fall prevention, Newton stresses the importance of staying active. She takes her own advice to heart, engaging regularly in a variety of physical activities, including dance, tai chi, and gardening.
As a physical therapist, Roberta Ann Newton ’69 has reached the top, but she refused to take the elevator to get there. An internationally recognized leader in fall prevention for older adults, Newton insisted on climbing the steps to her sixth-floor office at Temple University, from which she retired last year as a clinical professor of medicine.
Taking the stairs – and any chance for exercise – is serious business for Newton, since staying active reduces the risk of injury in case of falls, a phenomenon that threatens the independence – and lives – of millions each year. For her contributions, Newton received the American Physical Therapy Association’s highest honor last spring. The Catherine Worthingham Fellow award was the checkered flag on Newton’s career, a fast track to professional success that had its starting line in grade school and picked up speed during her undergraduate years.
“There was never a doubt for me. Mary Washington was the prime place I wanted to go,” said Newton, who grew up in Fredericksburg, just blocks from the school. “Being in that environment, you learned its strengths.”
With a natural curiosity that had her dissecting childhood toys and with teachers who made science seem sensational, Newton discovered her calling early on.
“Science was absolutely, without a doubt, my favorite subject,” she said, “and it was unusual for a woman to like science back then.”
Even so, Mary Washington’s science departments teemed with female faculty members in the late ’60s, Newton said. One in particular, biology professor Anna Scott Hoye, became Newton’s mentor and friend.
“She provided challenges and instilled confidence in me,” Newton said of Hoye. “She showed you how to do things, then let you do them for yourself.”
The strength of Newton’s Mary Washington education led to her acceptance, without a master’s degree, to the Medical College of Virginia’s doctoral program in neurophysiology. Before she’d completed the program, MCV had offered her a job, making Newton the first person to join a university’s physical therapy faculty without a physical therapy degree. She went on to earn a bachelor’s in the subject.
After 16 years at MCV, she was recruited in 1989 to help establish a doctoral program at Temple University in Pennsylvania. A flurry of prestigious appointments followed, including a stint as director of the Institute on Aging, but fall prevention remained her focus.
“When I moved to Philadelphia, fall prevention screening was not on the radar,” Newton said.
The former member of the Mary Washington tennis team urges her research subjects to follow her lead and stay active. Semi-retired in Greensboro, N.C., Newton still gardens, dances, does tai chi, and chooses steps over elevators – whatever it takes to stay on her toes. When she isn’t burning calories, she teaches an online course, writes and reviews manuscripts, and helps former students, who are now her colleagues, with their own projects.
“So what if I’m going to be 65?” Newton said. “I don’t feel it. I walked two marathons this year. I don’t look at chronology; I’m more interested in quality.”