Alliance Features Distinguished Keynote Presenters at Annual Conference

On August 18-20, the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education will be holding its 2011 Annual Conference in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. The theme for this meeting is Bringing Teaching to the Next Level, which is intended to highlight the Alliance's work on its National Teacher Education Standards Project. The educational program includes workshops to meet the professional development needs of directors and administrators from massage therapy schools, along with massage school teachers and continuing education providers. The conference also features three keynotes with distinguished presenters:

In a presentation entitled Creating a Culture of Teaching Excellence, Tracy Ortelli, PhD(c), RN, will offer massage therapy educators a unique perspective on what it takes to establish teacher standards in a professional discipline, and the tremendous difference it can make in the quality of educational outcomes. Tracy is Vice President of Academic Affairs for Galen College of Nursing and a recognized leader in the field of nursing education. She directed the development of the Nurse Educator Certification Program for the National League of Nursing, and was a test developer for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.

Ben Benjamin, PhD and Amy Yeager will introduce conference attendees to the System for Analyzing Verbal Interaction in a presentation on The Dynamics of Effective Communication. SAVI provides a state-of-the-art tool for analyzing and improving the effectiveness of verbal communication in all domains. The system focuses not on what we say, but on how we say it. In this presentation, you will experience how SAVI can be utilized from the classroom to the boardroom, and from the individual to the group level. Ben is one of the most highly-respected educators and authors in the massage therapy field. He is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he founded the Muscular Therapy Institute. Amy is a Harvard graduate and movement repatterning practitioner who is one of the principals in SAVI Training Partners, a company founded with Ben.

As massage therapy is considered part of the spectrum of complementary and alternative health care practices that are getting broad utilization by consumers, The Role of Massage Education in Complementary Health Care is the subject of the final keynote presentation at this year's conference. Jan Schwartz, MA, will offer an introduction to the mission and goals of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC), and will highlight ways that massage schools and educators can build bridges that facilitate collaboration with other health professions, and increase utilization of massage therapy services. Jan is a founding member of ACCAHC and serves on its Executive Committee. She is a former Director of Education for the Desert Institute of the Healing Arts and former chair of COMTA.

Complete descriptions of the educational program, conference details, as well as information on the new 2011 Alliance membership options may be found in a free 16-page booklet available from the Alliance website or by clicking this link. Conference participants can earn up to 15 contact hours of CE credit.

A $100 early registration discount is available through July 1. Alliance Members receive an additional $100 discount off the registration fee.

*  *  *

About the Alliance:

The Alliance for Massage Therapy Education is the voice, advocate and resource for the community of massage therapy schools and educators. It serves the entire education sector – from entry-level training programs through post-graduate studies. The National Headquarters of the Alliance is located at 1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, Virginia 22102. The phone number is 703-506-2888, the general office email address is admin@afmte.org, and the website is http://www.afmte.org.