In the 45th Mary McMillan Lecture, James Gordon stated that physical therapist education programs have a tripartite mission: education, research and scholarship, and clinical practice. These education programs form the core of academic physical therapy, which Gordon placed at the center of the profession's knowledge creation infrastructure. However, Gordon contended that too many education programs do not have research and scholarship as a core part of their mission, which threatens future knowledge creation and jeopardizes the profession’s future. In this podcast, Gordon is joined by Elizabeth Domholdt and Moderator Rebecca Craik to discuss the implications of his McMillan Lecture. Can programs have a greater focus on education or clinical practice, or must there be a balance among all 3 parts of the mission? Beyond discovery research, can other types of scholarship as described by Boyer--such as integration, application to practice, and teaching--fit into a model of academic excellence? Is there evidence that faculty members engaged in research are better educators?