USD School of Health Sciences Success Spotlight: Tammy Phipps, OT

Degree: Master of Occupational Therapy

Current Position: President, CEO, Driver Rehabilitation Center of Excellence, LLC

Tammy Phipps is used to being the first. As a member of the National Guard in the mid-1990s, she became the first woman in a combat unit in South Dakota. 

After earning her master's degree in Occupational Therapy at the University of South Dakota School of Health Sciences in 2000, the Condee native started Aberdeen's first driver rehabilitation program. She later went on to build and develop the only driver rehabilitation program in the entire Defense Department.  

Since 2016, she has run her own company which utilizes a first-of-its-kind model combining occupational therapy with vehicle modification for a true 'one stop shop' approach to driver rehabilitation. 

"Our motto is 'roll in the front and drive out the back'," says Phipps. "Driving is a function to occupation but it's also more than that. It allows you to get to work, run errands, drop off kids. Our services have saved marriages."

Phipps says the collaborative learning model she experienced at USD played a big role in her success as a therapist and a business woman. 

"I'm a really good problem solver and my foundation taught me to collaborate with others," says Phipps. "USD offered a truly multidisciplinary approach where we worked alongside other OTs, PTs, medical students and PAs. We took a lot of classes together."

And there were other advantages to USD for Phipps. Being from a small town, she liked the 'small town feel' at the school's Vermillion campus. She liked the fact that South Dakota graduates are desirable to employers. But what she liked even more was the high pass on the certification exam for USD's OT graduates. 

"I felt very well prepared to take my exams," she says. "USD had an amazing program."

Congratulations to this USD School of Health Sciences success story!