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Reflecting on 2025: Advocacy, Engagement, and Member Success

Published in Orthotics & Prosthetics on January 13, 2026

kesslerBy Jeff Kessler, Director, OPGA

What a year! We have lots to appreciate and a lot to look forward to 2026. That appreciation starts with our amazing members who do life-changing work for the patients you serve. We couldn't do what we do without you, and you are the reason we do what we do here at OPGA. Thank you! 

Here are just a few OPGA highlights from 2025. 

  • We went to D.C. and Capitol Hill to advocate for patients and for you.  
  • In concert with our amazing partner, Össur, we honored the deserving OPGA O&P Woman of the Year, Fanny Schultea. We also issued the Rusty Walker and Todd Eagen Memorial O&P grants to winners Avery-Claire Littleton and Nicole Bakovich. One small part of this included all of us attending the Challenged Athletes Foundation Marathon together.  
  • We supported an OPGA member in Indiana and participated in helping them shape and influence their local legislation.  
  • We recognized our members who serve our veterans with the OPGA 2025 Freedom Awards and thanked them for their service to this incredible patient population of brave men and women.  
  • We supported and visited an incredible, local, patient-faced event in WV called The Amputee Fun Fest. What The Miller Prosthetics and Orthotics family has created in The Amputee Center for the amputee population is something to be replicated. 
  • We supported our professional national associations of AOPA and AAOP by attending their annual events and select or regional conferences like the AOPA Leadership Conference and NJAAOP. 
  • We once again supported an organization in our own backyard called Tate's Army, who are helping families impacted by lawn mowers and lawn machinery-related accidents. 

We have all that and even more to look forward to in 2026, most of which involves continuing to work directly with our members by supporting you in all the different ways you need. One thing that will be a top priority for a segment of our members in 2026 is navigating accreditation and reaccreditation as it comes up. We're here to help with that. 

Engagement with our members is not only important to us, but also critical to making the most of our relationship. When the industry needs your support, we want our members to lead the efforts. And we want to hear from you. Visit us. Let us visit you. Let's connect virtually or in person. Engage with us. We want to hear about your triumphs and tribulations. We want you to know what we're doing for this industry, and we want to know what you're doing, how we can partner, and how we can support you. A big advantage to membership comes from staying plugged in so we can help and provide valuable information. Nobody can know everything that is going on, so we need to help each other by sharing information and sharing ideas. We love engaging with our amazing members. You are the best in the industry. Reach out to us today! 

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