Join us for an interesting conversation with Dr. Leanna Katz about her career interests along with her research about the use and application of the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS).

Abbigail Kubiak, OTD, OTR/L, LRC is a Teaching Professional at Boston University's Sargent College in the online post-professional occupational therapy program and the founder of One Life Lived Well Occupational Therapy Services. She is dedicated to educating practitioners and advancing clinical excellence in emerging and innovative practice areas with a particular focus on Long COVID and other energy-limiting conditions. Her doctoral work explored the use of podcasts as a tool to enhance education, mentorship, and professional identity development in occupational therapy, particularly in areas of practice that are underrepresented or still emerging.

Join us for an engaging conversation with Dr. Dustin Allen, Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Programs in Human Physiology at Boston University. In this episode, Dr. Allen shares their experience with thermoregulation, virtual reality, and the power of mentorship in career and education.

Join us for a conversation with Naomi Caselli, an Associate Professor of Deaf Education, co-director of the Deaf Center, and the director of the AI and Education initiative at Boston University. She is hearing, and her first languages are American Sign Language (ASL) and English. She leads a research team that works to make research on language—across education, computer science, linguistics, psychology, and medicine—inclusive of sign languages, and to ensure all deaf children have access to language.

Join us for an interesting conversation with Carrie Carman and Jen Papasodoro as they discuss their individual journeys in OT and why they came together to create The OT Parent Coaches, LLC.

Join us for an engaging discussion with Dr. Alyssa Boucher about Universal Design for Learning and Speech-Language Pathology!

Jessie Franco is a lecturer in the entry-level Occupational Therapy Doctorate program at Sargent College. Her clinical experience centers on adult physical dysfunction and spans the full rehabilitation trajectory, with expertise in acute care. Passionate about preparing students for fieldwork and practice, Jessie is dedicated to bridging the gap between classroom learning and real-world clinical practice.

Kayla Jackson is a local high school senior, prospective college student, and current Girl Scout Gold Award candidate. She is the founder of the Backpack Awareness Initiative in her local school district and has promoted backpack safety throughout her community. Under the guidance of Karen Jacobs, OT, EdD, OTR, CPE, FAOTA at Boston University, Kayla has been able to gather factual data and conduct survey-based research on backpack usage within her own school and community. Kayla's long-term goal is to improve student wellness by educating others and improving awareness on backpack usage and its lasting impacts on health.

Kate Stewart is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy, Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University. She is an occupational therapist licensed with the Massachusetts Board of Allied Health Professions and is registered with the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy and the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario. Kate has experience working with adults and older adults with diverse occupational performance and engagement issues across various settings, including acute care, inpatient rehab, community care, and mental health. Kate’s clinical work has primarily focused on providing occupational therapy services at the individual level (i.e., via home care) and at the group/collective level (i.e., via community mental health advocacy and social policy work). Kate’s scholarship emphasizes her interest in deepening our understanding of the occupational human to ultimately support individuals' capacity for everyday living. In service of this aim, she is interested in exploring the ways in which occupational therapists come to think like occupational therapists; that is, how occupational therapists reason through complex issues to best address the needs of clients. Recently, Kate has undertaken to examine the intersection of uncertainty and professional reasoning in occupational therapy practice and education.

Dr. Iverson’s career has been colored by a series of unexpected events, each of which have taken her work and interests in new directions. Her initial foray into psychological research – a

senior thesis focused on learning in cassius auratus (the goldfish) – led to an opportunity to work in a child language lab and subsequently to spending a year living in Rome and conducting research on the development of gesture and language in very young children. Her doctoral training in developmental psychology and language acquisition led to a postdoctoral

fellowship with Esther Thelen, where she spent a lot of time trying to understand what others in the Motor Development Lab were talking about (torque? attractor state?) and developing a deep

and lasting fascination with motor development. A move to the University of Pittsburgh in 2003 coincided with the award of a small grant to study the early development of infants with an older autistic sibling. This work became the impetus for combining her longstanding research on communicative and language development with her interest in motor development, with the goal of understanding how advances in the development of motor skills create rich new opportunities for infants to engage with objects and people and to do so in progressively more sophisticated ways. Dr. Iverson came to BU in 2022 with the goal of using this framework to develop interventions supporting early mobility and global development in infants and toddlers with motor delays and disabilities.