Ellen Hillegass

Dr. Ellen Hillegass is a physical therapist with APTA board certification in the cardiovascular and pulmonary clinical specialty. She is currently a professor on the core faculty at South College Knoxville and South College Atlanta and is an adjunct professor at Mercer University in Atlanta in the department of physical therapy. Ellen is also the president and CEO of PT Cardiopulmonary Educators, a web-based education company providing webinars for continuing education and residency education that also has a core curriculum in cardiopulmonary for DPT programs. She is also the founder of a clinical residency in cardiopulmonary through Mercer University in conjunction with Piedmont Hospital.

Ellen Hillegass was the chair of the Clinical Practice Guidelines Revision Committee on Venous Thromboembolism for the APTA (published in Physical Therapy journal in April 2022) and is the past chair of the Oxygen Recommendations Task Force for the APTA. She is a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association, the highest honor given by the APTA. She is the editor of Essentials in Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy, an entry-level text with its fourth edition published in June 2016, as well as the author of a clinical notes book entitled PT Clinical Notes (formerly Rehab Notes).

Ellen received her entry-level training in physical therapy from the University of Pennsylvania, her Master of Medical Science in cardiopulmonary physiology from Emory University, and her doctorate in exercise physiology from the University of Georgia. Her dissertation involved muscle morphology in the spinal cord–injured patient.