When Lynn Gaetano, D.P.T. (D.P.T. ’05) tells her story, it doesn’t start with anatomy labs or hospital rounds. Before she ever set foot in a clinic, she was at a desk realizing she wanted her work to touch people’s lives more directly.
“I have a bachelor’s degree in business administration,” she said. “I started working at a hose and rubber company in Chesapeake. They helped finish raising me as a person, but I quickly realized that just wasn’t for me.”
Everything changed the day her coworker and mentor, Sherrie, injured her back while playing with her kids, getting physical therapy as a result. “She would come in and say, ‘You would not believe what they did to me today,’” Dr. Gaetano laughed. “And it was all of this manual therapy.”
That curiosity sent her to the Tidewater Community College library, where she began pulling every book she could find on how to become a physical therapist. “I just wanted to do something to help people,” she said.
Three years of science prerequisites later, she was hooked. The night before her wedding she applied to 51鱨վ’s new Doctor of Physical Therapy program — today part of Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Ellmer College of Health Sciences at 51鱨վ. She joined the first D.P.T. class and graduated in 2005. “It was a very good day,” she said with a smile.
For more than a decade, Dr. Gaetano built her career in outpatient orthopedics. She loved the patients, but over time, the pace and productivity demands took a toll. “I was getting burned out, honestly,” she said. “The productivity levels were just so high. You went out of your way to accommodate patients, and the expectations were endless.”
Then her husband stumbled across a job posting for a nearby women’s correctional center.
“I had no idea that physical therapy existed in correctional medicine,” Dr. Gaetano admitted. “All we really know about prisons is from TV and movies. I was nervous.”
She applied anyway. “Within two days, my mind was completely turned around,” she said. “It was such a collaborative place to work. With other medical professionals, with mental health included. It was a bright, joyful place to work most days.”
Today, as the director of physical therapy for the Virginia Department of Corrections, Dr. Gaetano oversees 23 on-site physical therapy programs across the state, shaping care in an environment few ever see.
Walking into a correctional facility for the first time, Dr. Gaetano remembers the unease. “You have to go through security — it’s a process, a purposeful process,” she said. “You’re not sure what to do. Think airport security, and then up that a few notches.”
That uncertainty faded once she started observing sessions and meeting patients. A few friendly greetings quickly broke the ice, and she realized how mutual respect could change everything. Many of her patients tell her that they’re grateful for the chance to learn about their bodies and participate in their own recovery. One said something she’ll never forget: “I come in here and I feel like a person.”
Care in correctional facilities is built around structure and safety. “Security always comes first,” Dr. Gaetano said. Equipment like resistance bands isn’t allowed, so treatment focuses on body-weight exercises, as well as proper ergonomics for those who use the facility’s weight yards. Because many facilities are large, therapists also train patients to walk long distances to reach work areas, commissaries and libraries.
Most of the conditions she sees are familiar to any physical therapist — about 80 percent are outpatient orthopedic cases, but the health histories are often more complex. “Because during the course of their lives, they often haven't sought out nutrition, medical or dental health, you’ll often find more comorbidities and injuries that have been accelerated because of that,” she said. “You have to look at the whole patient, which is something 51鱨վ was really great at teaching us to do.”
Her department also partners with mental health staff to design programs focused on exercise, sleep hygiene and meditation for overall well-being. It’s work that bridges physical care and emotional health.
Dr. Gaetano said she wishes more people understood the level of professionalism in correctional healthcare. “Every facility has a fantastic interprofessional team — nurse practitioners, doctors, nurses, phlebotomists, pharmacy, radiology and mental health staff — all there to serve this population,” she said. “There’s a heart in the majority of the staff to serve this population, especially in leadership. The motive is to get patients the service they need.”
When she talks to students or young professionals, Dr. Gaetano often returns to one theme: growth through discomfort.
“I think the biggest part of my personal story is how uncomfortable I have had to be to grow,” she said. “I was uncomfortable as a business major who made the career switch. I was a nontraditional student. There were many tears. But I wanted to do this so badly.”
She added, “Being uncomfortable but knowing this is the path I’m supposed to be on — that’s been everything. If you don’t let yourself be uncomfortable and push those boundaries, you’ll never be the person you’re meant to be. You should never be too comfortable.”
For those curious about correctional medicine, her advice is simple: “Trust your instincts, but be willing to be a little uncomfortable. If you’re interested, reach out to me. We’ll give you a tour.”
Many of those who visit, she added, discover they genuinely love the work and choose to stay.
“I wish I could talk to everyone in the medical profession and just encourage them to look into correctional medicine,” Dr. Gaetano said. “It is the best job I’ve ever had. It’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had. It’s been the most professionally supported job I’ve ever had.”
Her pride in her work — and her alma mater — runs deep. “I don’t think I would have gained any of these skills without 51鱨վ,” she said. “Looking at the patient as a whole. Interprofessional collaboration. Public speaking and communication. All of it.”
As Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Ellmer College of Health Sciences at 51鱨վ celebrates 20 years of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program, Dr. Gaetano represents what that milestone truly means: a community of Monarchs who blend compassion and science wherever people need care.
