Sara Mae Welsh, OTR/L, is an occupational therapist specializing in forensics, recovery, and trauma. Sara graduated with a M.S. in occupational therapy from Spalding University in Louisville, KY. She works with individuals who are incarcerated, fighting addiction, and learning to cope with trauma. Her goal is to provide coping skills and aid in rational thought through meaningful occupations to assist in forgiveness, self-acceptance, and courage needed to live day-by-day. Sara says, "Breaking stigma and reintegrating this population back into society will benefit us all by making functional adults who want to live independent lives yet just do not know how." To find out more about occupational therapy or to see how to connect with Sara, visit the podcast website at www.ontheair.us

Connect with Sara:

• Email sara.welsh2016@gmail.com
• Website: www.believeinchances.com

Resources to check out:

• Guide to Forensic OT [video]
• Forensic Occupational Therapy [Facebook Page]

Nicole Julia, OTR/L, OTD - the mastermind behind the social media sensation, the Able Fables - holds a clinical doctorate in occupational therapy from Belmont Univ. in Nashville, TN. In addition to being an OT, Nicole is a self-described lover of people and a believer in a more inclusive, universally designed world - and now she's a book author as well. 

She has started an inclusive movement and a children’s picture book series telling stories, through fables, of love and ability. Through the series she named The Able Fables, she embarked on a beautiful, non-traditional OT journey that highlights the benefits of the community-based practice aspect of occupational therapy! Nicole currently live in Nashville with her husband, Jordan - she just got married last week! 

On this episode, Nicole discusses how and why she started The Able Fables and how she gives back through her work. She talks about the first book in the series, Gary's Gigantic Dream, shares about her own gigantic dreams! Nicole's website and her book both launched on Nov. 24, 2019. 

Connect with Nicole:

• ​The Able Fables (website)
• Via email - hello@theablefables.com
• Twitter @theablefables
• Facebook: The Able Fables
• Instagram: The Able Fables

Hoang ("Wong") Tran  - a Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) and the owner of Hands-on Therapy Services and the online community of practice CHT Secrets - has been practicing as an OT for about 20 years. She started Hands-on Therapy Services about 6 years ago in an effort to help more people with hand and arm injuries be more active and pain free while avoiding pills, injections, and surgery. As a CHT, she also helps a lot of people after surgery get the best possible outcome.
 
Hoang has always been in education in one form or another; when she started her private practice, she saw a need to create a community for OT's that want to specialize in hand therapy. Through the community she has established since through CHT Secrets, she seeks to provide coaching and mentorship for others who want to navigate the specialty practice area of hand therapy. 

Cheryl Crow is an occupational therapist who has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for 16 years. In 2019 she created a video and social media channel called Arthritis Life to educate, empower and inspire patients with arthritis and their providers. On Arthritis Life, she shares life hacks from the OT perspective, patient stories, provider interviews, and product reviews in a fun, talk show-style format.
 
Cheryl has volunteered for the Arthritis Foundation in numerous educational and advocacy events, including speaking at the Juvenile Arthritis Conference, KAT-FISH camp for kids and families with arthritis, and many adult-focused arthritis events. While attending many arthritis focused events, in addition to participating in social media groups focused on rheumatoid arthritis, she observed a huge unmet need for patients to have help in navigating simple daily activities.
 
She performed independent qualitative research on the discussion content of disease-specific Facebook groups, which showed that patients were spending the most time talking about IADLs (instrumental activities of daily living) and mental health/coping skills in these groups. She presented this research at the WFOT conference as well as the national rheumatology conference in 2015.
 
Arthritis Life was born out of her interest in finding fun, creative ways to address the unmet needs of patients with arthritis and related rheumatic conditions.
 
Cheryl graduated with her Masters in Occupational Therapy from Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, CA in 2012. For the following 8 years she focused her professional work on pediatric developmental disabilities in outpatient and school settings in the greater Seattle, WA area as well as Shanghai, China. She started teaching as an adjunct faculty member at the Lake Washington Institute of Technology's OTA program in 2016 and she greatly enjoys educating the future workforce of OT practitioners. 

Connect with Cheryl:

• Via email
• On her Facebook Page, Arthritis Life Cheryl
• On Twitter @realcc
• Via her website, The Enthusiastic Life 

Polly Benson, OTR/L, is a licensed occupational therapist with 28 years of experience treating patients in multiple settings. She currently works for Comprehensive Therapy Consultants in Atlanta, GA as a school based OT. She is a graduate of The Ohio State University. Polly has extensive experience in technology apps and strategies designed to assist clients for achieving therapy goals. She is a distinguished therapist and seasoned continuing education instructor. She volunteers at her local high school as the theater troupe Booster Club President, and at her church as a high school small group leader. 

Recently Polly invented a new product called the Legi-Liner to help students with improving their handwriting. On this episode, she talks about how she got the idea for that innovation and gives tips to others who may also be interested in product creation and development. 

Polly's product can be purchased via her website, www.Legiliner.com. 

Connect with Polly:

• Via email legilinertool@gmail.com
• Facebook page @Legi-Liner

David Puder, MD, is a physician who practices medicine as a psychiatrist. David hosts a podcast called the Psychiatry & Psychotherapy Podcast and has an interest in helping students overcome test anxiety. He has also spoken on the topic of test anxiety on Session 337 of The PreMed Years podcast.

On this episode, David talks about how test anxiety can serve as a barrier for people who are trying to get into occupational therapy (OT) school as well as for those in OT school and OT students who are preparing to take the certification exam and strategies that have been found effective in addressing text anxiety. 

Maureen Warden has been an occupational therapist for 23 years. After earning a bachelor's degree in health science from SUNY Cortland in central New York, she completed a master's in occupational therapy  at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Her early career was in a general hospital setting, working primarily within the inpatient and stroke population. As part of that hospital position,  she was sent to the Intermediary Unit near the hospital in which she worked to provide school based services. From that point on, Maureen's focus has been school-based therapy services. She is a veteran member of an interdisciplinary team in a program for children with hearing loss. On a personal front, her life is busy with an active family of five;  she and her husband of 25 years have raised our three now-adult children in rural northwest New Jersey and the whole family enjoys all things outdoors.

On this episode, Maureen discusses her work as an OT in a school for deaf children. 

Michelle Finet is an occupational therapist who has worked with children and youth for over 20 years specializing in the areas of sensory integration and autism. She has worked with clients with a wide range of diagnoses including but not limited to Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, torticollis, developmentally delays, brachial plexus injuries, cognitive impairment, muscular dystrophy, and attention deficit disorder. 

Michelle has experience running a company providing therapy services through a contract with the state of Arizona as well as working as an ergonomics consultant in multiple settings. She currently teaches full-time in the OT program at Touro University in Henderson, Nevada. Her research focuses on how OT can be more involved with working with and providing services to members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and she provides services one day per week in a primary care clinic focused on serving that community.

On this episode, Michelle talks about how she became interested in working with individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community and shares about the role of OT in providing occupational therapy services for people in this context. 

Connect with Michelle via email 
Connect with the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD)

Meghann Rose has been a pediatric OT for almost 14 years. Her first 12 years were spent working at a Children's Hospital in Rochester, NY, where she helped establish a team-based approach to occupational therapy in the NICU and where she focused on infant feeding, positioning and transition to home. 

In 2007, Meg and neurologist Jennifer Kwon established the Brachial Plexus Outpatient Clinic and in 2011 they received a grant to develop a protocol for care of infants with brachial plexus injuries and a referral system. 

In 2017, Meg transitioned from the hospital setting to private practice, and she now works in an outpatient clinic as part of a feeding team and with infants with brachial plexus injuries. In addition, she works with children and families as part of the Early Intervention system. She has published an article on feeding and another on brachial plexus injuries. Meg is also a mom to three kids ages 10, 8 and 4 and participates in hobbies that include photography and volunteering with the local ambulance core. 

On this episode, Meg shares about her path into OT and as a specialist in BPI, and she discusses the different types of BPI and how each is addressed via the protocol. 

Connect with Meg via email at megroseot@gmail.com.

Recommendations & resources from this episode:

• Episode of the Hidden Brain podcast entitled "Alan Alda Wants Us To Have Better Conversations" that talks about the use of improv as a way to improve communication in everyday situations 
  
• Rita Charon's book on narrative medicine: Narrative Medicine - Honoring the Stories of Illness
• Sally's research articles
  

Tools for OT faculty to help students explore their own bias, as developed by Sally and others:

• Traveling tour - can put on performances in other areas - on topics like opioid and transgender
• Healthcare inequities experienced by black women - just developed a play on that
• Columbia University's Narrative Medicine certificate training program

Contact Sally via email
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