Associate Professor
Favorite occupations: Cooking/baking, traveling, landscape design, computing and electronics, spending time with friends and pets
Dr. Nakamura earned his entry-level Master’s of Occupational Therapy degree (1998) and post-professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree (2017) from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. He has 18 years of clinical experience as an occupational therapist, primarily in adult physical rehab with a focus in acute care, including cardiopulmonary rehab, ICU care, orthopedics, and neurotreatment. He has also worked in outpatient pediatrics, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and home health organizations.
Dr. Nakamura has been an educator since 2012 in occupational therapy programs at the University of Puget Sound and Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT. His expertise includes occupation-based functional anatomy and neuroscience, assistive technology, accessibility to built environments (ADA, Titles II and III), community mobility and driving, gerontology, community-based program development, legislative policy and advocacy, leadership, and management. He is a Credentialed Leader in Academia (CLA) by the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA); served as Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee of the Academy of Communication in Healthcare; and is a Certified CarFit® Event Coordinator.
Dr. Nakamura’s program of research has been fundamentally related to communication and the development of therapeutic relationships, particularly in client education. Dr. Nakamura’s current work focuses on the unique roles that occupational therapists are qualified to address in planetary health (analyzing the impact of human disruption to the Earth’s natural systems and resources on community and population health), particularly in rural and medically underserved communities in the U.S.
Clinical Interests
Adult physical rehabilitation; technology; community-based programming; client education; health management occupations
Research Areas
Planetary Health
Communication and the therapeutic relationship
Client education to maximize adherence and therapy outcomes
Diversity, equity, and inclusion, especially for disadvantaged populations (racial/ethnic, LGBTQIA+, rural, medically underserved)