Hood River Physical Therapy

Staff

Cindy Stephens, PT
Owner of Hood River Physical Therapy, Inc

Cindy Stephens graduated from the University of Delaware in 1984. She spent her first five years as a physical therapist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore Maryland as well as moonlighting as a home health physical therapist. The following year she managed a private physical therapy clinic in the same city. In 1990 she moved to beautiful Hood River, Oregon to be closer to great windsurfing and was fortunate to gain a position as a staff physical therapist at a small outpatient orthopedic physical therapy practice. Within two years she became the owner of that same clinic. She is now the owner and full-time director of Hood River Physical Therapy. She is also the Rehab Services Manager at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital which provides physical, occupational, and speech therapies to the hospital's inpatients.

Cindy developed industrial on-site physical therapy programs at two local fruit-packing businesses and also performs ergonomic assessments at various businesses in the area. She is certified by Isernhagen Work Systems to perform Functional Capacity Evaluations, Functional Job Analyses and PreWork Screenings.

Peter Schmidt, PT

Peter is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and received a BS in Exercise Physiology as well as his BS in Physical Therapy in 1989 from the University of Colorado's Health Sciences Center. He worked as a physical therapist in The Dalles, OR before joining the staff of Hood River Physical Therapy in 2002. His professional emphasis is on rehabilitation and prevention of orthopedic injuries.

Peter's personal interests include skiing, climbing snow-covered mountains so he can ski back down, windsurfing, and spending time with his wife and two kids.

Laurie VanCott, MSPT

Laurie graduated from Pacific University's Physical Therapy Program in 2000. Her undergraduate degree is in art history and business from Lewis and Clark College. She chose to pursue a career in physical therapy after working as a yoga teacher in New Zealand and the US. As a physical therapist, Laurie's focus has included working with patients with fibromyalgia, chronic pain, and women's health issues. Laurie joined Hood River Physical Therapy in January 2003 and has been pivotal in developing our Incontinence Therapy / Women's Health Program. Laurie currently spends half her working hours in HRPT's outpatient clinic and the other half administering physical therapy to the inpatients in Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital, a contract held by HRPT for well over 20 years. Additionally, she spends a few hours each week treating and preventing injuries in one of our local fruit packing houses. She also teaches a few yoga classes per week.

Laurie's personal interests include cycling, soccer, hiking, yoga, and spending time with her husband and two young children.

Rene Knight-Weiler, PT

Rene pursued her degree in wildlife biology at Oregon State University, then received her B.S. in Physical Therapy from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1978. She landed her first P.T. position in Ketchikan, Alaska when she responded to an ad that promised "Medical Adventure!” Since that time she has worked in numerous physical therapy settings including outpatient and home health and now has found her favorite niche as the acute care P.T. at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital where she has worked for 17 short years.

In addition to patient care, she loves to write and is the former publisher/editor of the international parenting magazine called "Spiritual Mothering Journal.” She lives with her husband and daughter in a log home in Lyle, Washington, while her two older children are off in various other parts of the world.

Laura Pederson, PTA

Laura is originally from Gresham, OR, and received her Physical Therapy Assistant degree from Mount Hood Community College in 1994. She has been living in the Gorge since that time and has worked at Hood River Physcial Therapy since December 1996. She has focused her continuing education on manual therapy techniques including and specializing in Strain/Counterstrain and Craniosacral Therapy. She developed a Prenatal & Post-partum physical therapy program at HRPT in 1997 and has continued to gow this program since that time.

Laura's enjoys outdoor and sports-related activities with her son.

Mike Collins, MS CCC-SLP, Speech Therapist

Mike graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987 with a Master's Degree in Speech and Language Pathology. His practice has focused on treating adults with speech, cognitive, and swallowing problems after stroke, brain injury, oral cancer, Parkinson's disease, and other neurological syndromes. Mike sees patients in both hospital inpatient and outpatient clinic settings. Mike also works part-time in the public schools. He enjoys spending time with his 8 year-old son, Keenan. His hobbies include gardening, home improvement projects, and outdoor pursuits.

Lara Dunn, MA CCC-SLP, Speech Therapist

Lara graduated from the University of Oregon in 1996 with a Master's Degree in Speech and Language Pathology. She works mainly with pre-school and school-aged children and their families. Lara has worked extensively with children with autism, cerebral palsy, and other developmental disabilities. She often helps clients and families with augmentative and alternative communication systems. Lara also treats adult clients in the hospital and outpatient clinic settings. Outside of the clinic, Lara is a bookworm, acrobat, and outdoor enthusiast.

Tonya McLean, LMT
Massage Therapist

Available for massage appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-6. Please call Hood River Physical Therapy for an appointment.

Tonya was born and raised in Eastern WA in the Spokane area. She attended Massage Therapy school in Spokane at Northwest Noetic School of Massage. There she received 1,000 hours of training in many different areas, including Structural Intigration, Sports Rehabilitation, Cranial Sacral, Lymphatic Massage, Reflexology, Hot Stone Therapy, Geriatric Massage and many more. In her free time Tonya likes to hike, mountain bike and spend time with friends and family.

Senay Burton
Office Manager

Originally from Washington State, Senay joined Hood River Physical Therapy in January 2002. Armed with and education in Business Administration and Marketing, she became involved in the Medical Business Administration field working for Cigna Healthcare, in Phoenix, AZ in 1997. There she became familiar with insurance benefits and moved into a Senior Financial Specialist position. She moved to California in 2000 and worked for American Express as a manager in their Quality Assurance Dept, then moved into managing accounts receivable. The opportunity then arose to travel to India as a business analyst to implement an office in Mumbai. Upon her arrival back to the US, she moved to Hood River and began working at Hood River Physical Therapy. She loves it here-the work AND the play.