Physical Therapy

Luke Menke, MSPT
Luke was born in the high mountain town of Leadville, CO and grew up in Carbondale located in the beautiful Roaring Fork Valley on Colorado’s western slope. He attended Colorado State University in Ft. Collins on full scholarship and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Exercise & Sport Science with a Sports Medicine concentration. Luke earned his Master’s in Physical Therapy at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida in 1998. His first job out of PT school involved working closely with world-renowned orthopedic surgeon to the superstars: Dr. James Andrews; and the country’s most respected shoulder and knee physical therapist: Kevin Wilk. Luke started practicing in Littleton around 2001 and founded Panther Physical Therapy in 2006. The state-of-the-art sports performance addition was completed in the fall of 2013. Luke has a passion for working with young athletes and certainly enjoys working with any individual who is willing to take an active role in overcoming their injury or improving their performance. He has worked with professional athletes from just about every major sport. Luke played football, baseball and wrestled in high school and loved playing collegiate and men’s club rugby into his late 20’s. He has since traded his rugby boots in for golf clubs. His favorite job is spending time with his wife Erin, daughter Skyler and son Murphy (both of whom are in college). He has two Portuguese Water Dogs: Bodacious and Foxy Cleopatra. Luke is an Athlete’s Performance (EXOS) Level 2 mentor, a certified Functional Movement Screen specialist, a member of the American Physical Therapy Association’s orthopedic section, sports section and private practice section. He is also a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association and Titleist Golf Performance Institute certified. Luke’s idol is his father Pat, who was an incredibly perseverant and compassionate human being with a fantastic moral compass and an ornery sense of humor.

Alissa Powers PT, DPT, ATC
Alissa joined the Panther team in the Spring of 2013. She is a home-grown Coloradoan and has been a sports enthusiast and outdoor adventurer her entire life. She double majored in Athletic Training and Kinesiology at Colorado Mesa University. With a combination of numerous injuries and her passion of helping others, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a Physical Therapist. She graduated from the University of Colorado- Anschutz Medical Campus with her Doctorate of Physical Therapy in 2012. She has a passion for rehabilitating athletes of all levels and helping them return to the top of their game. She enjoys treating a wide variety of orthopedic diagnoses and especially enjoys working with the hip joint. She is certified in functional dry needling and uses this treatment approach in conjunction with other manual interventions to accelerate recovery. When Alissa is not at work, she is adventuring with her awesome husband and 3 kids.

Chris Nagelhout, M.S., ATC
Chris is a Chicago native who moved to Colorado in 1987 to attend the University of Northern Colorado. Chris earned her BA in Kinesiology, with an emphasis in Athletic Training and a minor in Biology from UNC in 1991. She moved “home” to complete her MS Ed degree, with an emphasis in Sport Management at Northern Illinois University while also completing a graduate assistantship in Athletic Training in 1993. After graduate school, Chris worked for an orthopedic surgeon in Northern Illinois as a staff ATC and provided outreach to a local high school. Missing Colorado, Chris moved back in 1994, married her best friend and started working in an outpatient physical therapy clinic in Evergreen Colorado, again providing outreach to the local high school. Chris spent 7 years as the Head Athletic Trainer at Chatfield High School, 4 years as the Jefferson County Clinical Director overseeing 19 high school programs and 4 years as a clinical staff member for a Doctor of Osteopathy. In 2007, Chris joined Panther Physical Therapy as a clinical staff member and has played a very integral role in building Panther into what it is today. Chris loves athletics, reading, and cooking. In her free time, she also “works” at her other full time job, as wife and mother of two beautiful kids. Chris loves watching her kids’ sports and spending time staying active with her family. Chris has a passion for helping people, focusing on the whole person and getting them back to healthy. Her strengths include assessing musculoskeletal injuries, mechanical dysfunction, manual therapy, acute and chronic pain treatment, rehabilitation and developing home exercise programs.

Tim Engquist PT, DPT
Tim is a Colorado native growing up in Colorado Springs. He attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins majoring in Health and Exercise Science with a concentration in Sports Medicine. He then attended the University of Colorado’s Physical Therapy program graduating with a Doctorate of Physical Therapy in spring of 2016. Throughout his time along the front range he adopted a very active lifestyle running, hiking and playing whatever sports he has the chance to. He cultivated a love for physical therapy because of his active lifestyle and knowing how hard it is to not be able to participate in these things. He appreciates to opportunity to help people be able to do what they love in a pain-free manner.

David Quinn, DPT
David is from Freetown, Massachusetts and attended Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut to earn his Athletic Training degree in 2019 and Doctorate of Physical Therapy in May of 2022. A true passion for sports, outdoor activities, and previous injuries leads him along this journey. David decided to pursue sports rehabilitation and performance after various clinical rotations and internships involving Division 1, professional sports, and sports rehabilitation facilities all over the United States and Europe. He has decided to ship off to Colorado to continue this passion to work with active individuals and develop as a clinician and as a sports rehabilitation specialist. David truly believes in listening to the patient to understand their interests and passion to get them back to participating in their favorite activities or sports. Some of David’s hobbies include snowboarding, hiking, surfing, traveling, and recreational sports. He also looks forward to learning how to downhill bike and meeting new friends.

Megan Hoffman, DPT
Megan is from Murrieta, Ca but has since lived all over the country most recently in Dallas, Tx. She went undergrad at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas then transferred after her sophomore year to the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. While in undergrad Megan played division 1 volleyball at both schools. She was an exercise science major with a Pre-Physical Therapy specialty. Megan attended Creighton University for PT school and graduated in May 2022. Her interest in physical therapy stems from her own injuries as well as her love of the human body, exercise, and teaching others about their body. Megan enjoys treating athletes off all levels and treating a variety of diagnoses, but her passion is with shoulders, knees, and ankles. Megan will be getting her dry needling cert in October 2022. In her free time, she loves hanging out with her husband and Australian shepherd named Maggie. They love to hike and travel, and recently she just learned how to ski and is excited about getting better at that.
Sports Performance & Fitness

Mark Wagner, MS, XPS, XFS
Mark began his pursuit of performance and fitness like many others in the industry: as an athlete looking to gain a competitive edge. His passion for exercise and nutrition led him to Kent State University, in Kent, OH where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Exercise Science and Master of Arts in Exercise Science. While in higher education, he obtained a Graduate Assistantship within the Exercise Science department allowing him to teach multiple courses in health, fitness, and exercise physiology.
After grad school, Mark moved out to Phoenix, AZ where he completed an intensive internship with EXOS, an elite athlete-focused training center. Following the internship, he was hired on full-time with concentration on running semi-private and group training in a corporate setting. After two gratifying years in AZ, Mark received a unique career opportunity to run a Fortune 50 company’s state of the art fitness center in Chicago, IL. During that time, he helped implement world-class member experience while helping to develop the performance coaching team with particular emphasis on continued education and practical application. Fours years later Mark moved out to Colorado Springs, CO to help launch and grow an adult and youth sports performance program. Most recently he spent a year in New York City in adidas’ largest global retail space serving as Performance Manager of a performance coaching team dedicated to providing innovative training and education techniques for both consumers and adidas’ employees. Regardless of the environment and demographic, Mark’s mission remains focused on helping others improve their lives.
Outside of work, Mark enjoys spending time with his nephews and niece and leads a very active lifestyle, a driving force behind his relocation back to CO!
Admin

Gina Whisker

Jennifer Deisher
Jennifer came to Panther as Office Manager after managing a Chiropractic practice for 5 years. She enjoys working with the amazing team and patients at Panther. She is originally from Texas but has lived in Colorado since 1990. She has 2 amazing kids, a son, Brady, who is 23 and a daughter, Blake, who is 21. She is a certified yoga instructor, and her hobbies include hiking, water sports, nature photography and traveling as much as possible.