JULIE STARR, who joined Sargent’s physical therapy faculty in 1988, retired in June. How do you measure the good a clinical professor has made over a career spanning more than three decades? “There are really no words to express the impact that [Julie] has had on the physical therapy profession, on our students, and in our department,” says Terry Ellis, physical therapy department chair and Starr’s colleague since 1995.

Starr’s scholarly and practice interests include acute-care physical therapy, cardiovascular and pulmonary care, chronic lung disease treatment, and the epidemiology of lung diseases worldwide. In the last few years, Starr (’80) has studied and written about the importance of empathy in a physical therapist. She has published more than 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has been an invited speaker at dozens of conferences around the world.

But Starr’s influence is probably best felt in the classroom, where thousands have passed through her courses throughout her tenure, Ellis estimates. In 2006, Starr received the Whitney Powers Award for Teaching Excellence, and in 2019 the American Physical Therapy Association named her a Catherine Worthingham Fellow—the organization’s highest honor. “She is super passionate in the classroom, very engaged, and very invested in the growth and development of our students,” Ellis says.

Starr has maintained her certification in cardiac life support and as a cardiopulmonary specialist and continued to see patients at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center through her practice there. This only added to the richness of her in-class instruction, Ellis says.

“There’s nothing like being able to stand up in front of the class and say, ‘The patient I saw yesterday in the ICU presented with…,’” Ellis says. “She has done that for 34 years and maintained both of those things in a way that is exemplary.”

What will Starr miss most about teaching at Sargent? Two things, she says: “The camaraderie with the other Sargent faculty” and “watching for those ‘aha’ moments from the students when it all starts to click into place. That is so much fun.”