Category: Faculty Highlight

Dr. Lisa Bagby, Assistant Professor of Health, Human Function, and Rehabilitation Sciences, together with the Occupational Therapy Team, launched the Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Doctorate (eOTD) program in Fall 2022.

As the Academic Fieldwork Coordinator for the program, Dr. Bagby focuses on empowering people and diverse communities. The program’s courses, service learning initiatives, and fieldwork experiences apply a social model of disability, in which students are taught to consider the intersection of health and social conditions.

Over the course of five semesters, students also complete monthly service learning experiences in a diverse community setting in the DC area, prior to beginning their clinical rotations. Given the persistent and systemic inequities faced by marginalized and minoritized groups in the United States, Dr. Bagby seeks to develop future occupational therapists with skills to not only improve individual functioning within a given setting, but also to be catalysts for change in the hearts and minds of our society at large.

Please visit the Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Doctorate program website for more information.

Today’s blog features the work of Dr. Joan Kester, assistant professor in the Special Education and Disability Studies Department at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

For the past nine years Dr. Kester has led the Transition Discoveries Project, initiated in Pennsylvania. The Transition Discoveries Framework was developed through a rigorous, multi-year, statewide research study in which over 500 young people, families and stakeholders across different cultural groups and socioeconomic regions participated in semi-structured and structured qualitative data collection experiences. The study resulted in the identification of eight indicators of successful transition from high school to adult life.

Currently 30 sites have been funded by the Pennsylvania Transition Technical Assistant Network (PaTTAN) and the Pennsylvania Development Disabilities Council to implement the Transition Discoveries Framework in their district. Sites are engaged in a multi-step action planning process designed to be responsive to each district’s context, leveraging all available community resources, in which youth with disabilities and their families play a central role.

Email Dr. Kester or visit the Transition Discoveries website to learn more about this work!