Dr. Katie Anderton '22

When Katie Anderton arrived at Pitt-Bradford to play soccer, she was chasing a love of sport. What she didn't expect was that the lessons learned on the field — absorbing feedback, rallying a team, and setting aside ego for a common goal — would one day follow her all the way to Belize City, where she spent the spring of 2025 as one of only three occupational therapists in Belize, helping autistic children and coaching their parents on how their kids experience the world.

Anderton, who graduated with a degree in exercise science, stepped into a leadership role earlier than most. After a wave of seniors departed following her freshman year, she served as team captain for her remaining three seasons, helping rebuild Panther soccer from the ground up. Bringing together players with wildly different personalities taught her something she carries into every workplace today: that shared purpose matters more than personal differences.

That foundation shows up in how she handles professional feedback. In the clinical setting, her mentor fills the role her coaches once did. Rather than taking criticism personally, she treats it the way she learned to as a young athlete — as guidance meant to make her better at what she does. When COVID reshaped campus life during her junior year, she added swimming to her routine, finding in it something unexpected: stress relief, new friendships, and a renewed sense of perspective that she says enhanced her college experience in ways she hadn't anticipated.

"I loved my experience as an athlete. I played sports my entire life, and I owe so much to sports for developing me into the person I am."