Heather Lee will tell you plainly that she was never gunning for valedictorian. She grew up on a farm outside Willisville, played softball from sixth grade through her senior year, cheered, played volleyball, performed in musicals, and had what might generously be described as a healthy relationship with her homework. She graduated from Trico in 2002 with good grades and a clear sense of where she belonged — in this community, in this work, around people she'd known her whole life. She just wasn't done growing yet. It took her twenty-two more years, three kids, and forty-two seven-hour drives to Ohio to finish.

After graduation, she played softball at John A. Logan College for two years, then enrolled in the Physical Therapist Assistant program at SIU, graduating in 2006. She went to work for Southern Illinois Healthcare doing inpatient physical therapy at Carbondale's hospital — a job she has now held, in various forms, for nearly twenty years. In 2011, she married Colt Lee, a union carpenter. Their three children, Brooks, Weston, and Willow, were born over the years that followed.

The doctorate came later, and harder. In 2022 — with kids ages 3, 5, and 7 at home — Heather enrolled in a PTA-to-DPT bridge program at the University of Findlay in Ohio, a pathway that allows working physical therapist assistants to earn a full Doctorate of Physical Therapy. The program was not online. Every other weekend for two and a half years, she drove seven hours to Findlay, attended classes, and drove seven hours back. Forty-two round trips, while working full-time and raising a family. She graduated in December 2024. "The only way I was able to become a physical therapist," she says, "is because of my husband and all of my family and my children being so understanding. It took a lot of time."

The degree changed what she can do, not just what she's called. As a physical therapy assistant, she carried out treatment plans designed by others. As a licensed PT with a doctorate, she now directs her patients' full course of care. She recently transitioned from inpatient to outpatient practice and works at Rehab Unlimited in Murphysboro, part of the Southern Illinois Healthcare system. She is one of three physical therapists in the clinic, which also employs three PTAs — a dynamic she understands from both sides of the table.

She's also added a new credential: in November 2025, she became certified in dry needling, a technique that uses thin needles to target muscle tension and trigger points. It differs from acupuncture in its clinical focus and is increasingly integrated into physical therapy practice. Heather describes it as a newer tool in the field that she finds genuinely exciting. Most insurance plans cover it. The certification required six full days of coursework. At this point, six days seems light.

Long-term, she hopes to open her own private practice — possibly home health-based, going directly to patients rather than waiting for them to come to her. The details are still taking shape. What isn't uncertain is her connection to the place that shaped her. Her father, Rodney Ohlau, still lives in the farmhouse she grew up in. Her mother, Paula, known to many in the area by her maiden name Higgerson, lives near Murphysboro. The family has property close to the Trico district. She still attends church there. When a patient mentions they're from the Trico community, she says the connection is immediate — a shared shorthand, a sense of common ground that doesn't need explaining.

She gives particular credit to her longtime softball coach, Steve Toler, who coached her from sixth grade through her senior year, and to superintendent Larry Lovel, whose visible investment in the community she's watched and appreciated from a distance. Her high school crew — Ashley Gunn, Kellie Flores, Jill Wilson, Lindsay Oetjen, and Rachel Ranta Marshall — remains her core group. She still goes to Trico sporting events to watch their kids play. The farm girl from Willisville never really left. She just kept adding credentials to her name.