Our Faculty are First Rate
All high-quality occupational therapy programs have something in common: high-quality faculty who are experts in their craft, who are nationally and internationally known, and who make a difference in the communities where they live and work every day. The PNWU Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program boasts an exceptional group of faculty. What makes our team stand out among the rest?
Experience.
All PNWU faculty have years of prior experience teaching in academic settings. When you choose PNWU for your occupational therapy education, you get the benefit of learning with and from seasoned clinicians and scholars who understand the needs of diverse learners. Below, we highlight a few of the recent accomplishments of our faculty.
You can also learn more about the SOT faculty here.
Occupational Therapy and Mental Health
Dr. Heather Fritz, Associate Professor and Founding Program Director, was awarded $264K by Yakima County to establish an occupational therapy service line in collaboration with Triumph Treatment Services. When most people think about occupational therapy, they think of rehabilitation and not mental health. Not only are occupational therapists behavioral health providers, but they also play a pivotal role in supporting those with behavioral health challenges to live a full and productive life. While many occupational therapy students desire to practice in behavioral health settings, there are few opportunities to choose from, especially in the area of community-based behavioral health. Dr. Fritz sees the recent grant funding as one step in the right direction. “I believe once the community sees what occupational therapy can do for clients with behavioral health conditions, more and more agencies will jump on board.” The model developed by Dr. Fritz was proposed on a larger scale by the Washington Occupational Therapy Association (WOTA). Due to strong WOTA advocacy efforts, the WA state legislature approved funding for 5 demonstration projects over the next two years. Each will similarly establish an occupational therapy service line in a community-based behavioral health agency. “This expansion of OT’s role in behavioral health is huge,” notes Fritz. It’s incredibly gratifying to know legislators understand the valuable role we can play.
Searching for Solutions to Human Trafficking
Dr. Jami Flick, Associate Director and Director of Clinical Education, plays a pivotal role in advancing occupational therapy’s role in the anti-human trafficking movement. Dr. Flick was recently approached by Simucase to create a video focusing on a public health approach to prevent and respond to human trafficking. The video includes an overview of multiple models that can be used by occupational therapy practitioners working in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention settings within the anti-trafficking movement. As the number of human trafficking victims continues to increase worldwide, OTs need to understand what they can do to prevent human trafficking and support those who have experienced exploitation. Simucase is a major online learning platform used by occupational therapy programs nationwide, meaning Dr. Flick’s work will be instrumental in educating the next generation of occupational therapy practitioners. “Human trafficking is a social and occupational injustice. Occupational therapy practitioners must be at the forefront to advocate for those impacted and find solutions to support the anti-trafficking movement,” says Dr. Flick.
Aging and Place
Dr. Malcolm Cutchin, Professor and Director of Research has just had his 7th edited volume published—the Handbook on Aging and Place. Dr. Cutchin and co-editor Graham Rowles recruited 43 scholars from 11 countries to contribute to this forward-looking Handbook. The new text focuses on aging and place rather than aging in place, and offers a broader scope and more nuanced, complex, and enlightening understanding of these two intertwined universals of human experience. Dr. Heather Fritz, Director of the School of Occupational Therapy adds, “This is the kind of text I wish I had in OT school. Aging in place has become somewhat over-simplified and overly focused on home modifications. I’m excited about how this text can challenge us as practitioners and scholars to think about the relationships we and our clients have with place and the role of occupation in those relationships.” More about the book can be found here.
Making the Impossible Possible
Dr. Brandon Imamshah, Assistant Professor, is making the impossible possible for community members living with the sequelae of neurological injuries. Adjusting to life after a neurological injury is a challenging process and requires timely access to high-quality and affordable healthcare services and resources. In rural and medically underserved areas, those kinds of services and resources are limited. In Yakima County, many people who have experienced a neurological injury don’t have access to the kind of services needed to support their long-term recovery needs. Dr. Imamshah recognizes the gaps in available services and has started developing and implementing a service-learning experience that is provided to community members at no cost. The learning experience serves dual purposes: (1) to provide community-dwelling individuals who experienced a neurological injury with high-quality occupational therapy services; and (2) to provide students with innovative learning opportunities that complement and apply what is learned in the classroom and that demonstrate diverse approaches to neurological intervention. It is Dr. Imamshah’s hope that the service-learning experience will run year-round, fill a necessary gap in service provision, highlight the positive impacts of health promotion and prevention approaches to intervention, and establish and sustain meaningful relationships with community members.
A New Way to Learn Anatomy
Dr. Wendell Nakamura, Associate Professor and Admissions Coordinator is making function front and center of anatomy education. Most occupational therapy programs provide instruction in anatomy and physiology as part of the curriculum. For decades, the popular belief was that cadaver-based anatomy, taught through rote memorization, was the best and only way to learn human anatomy. There is one significant problem with that approach, however. Taught in the traditional mode, memorization of human anatomy occurs in a siloed fashion divorced from how those structures function in the context of occupation. Moreover, some students struggle to translate their knowledge of anatomy back to occupation. Dr. Nakamura set out to address the issue. In collaboration with Dr. Imamshah, he has created an e-text focusing on the instruction of anatomy and neuroanatomy from a functional perspective. Eight years in the making, the text is available to students as part of their coursework at PNWU. He notes, “Our courses in human anatomy, movement, and neurosciences do not follow the traditional reductionistic, decontextualized, structures-based approach. Instead, we focus first on understanding movement and its importance in promoting and supporting, health, well-being, and occupational performance. Once students gain mastery of those concepts, they learn about the underlying body structures and functions that make movement happen. We also explore what happens to movement and body structures under various conditions and disease processes that are frequently seen in occupational therapy practice.” Dr. Nakamura plans to make the text available to a wider audience in the future through a subscription-based plan.
Innovating OT Education
Dr. Jennifer Pitonyak, Professor and Director of Curriculum, is dedicated to innovating occupational therapy education and identifying curriculum delivery methods that achieve the best learner outcomes. She is co-investigator on a nation-wide study of student outcomes of occupation-centered learning. Dr. Pitonyak also co-directs the American Occupational Therapy Association Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Mentorship Program and was recently the lead author on a peer-reviewed manuscript in International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning describing the 10-year outcomes of the program (available here). She has applied her educational research experience at PNWU through her leadership in interprofessional education initiatives. “We are innovating curriculum here in the PNWU School of Occupational Therapy by designing learning experiences that center the occupational needs of rural and medically underserved communities and align with the PNWU vision of revolutionizing community health through interprofessional collaborations,” says Dr. Pitonyak.
Young Adult Transition
Dr. Sara Wyckoff, Assistant Professor, works to ensure children and young adults have the skills needed to succeed in school and in the adult world. The demand for young adult transition services and early school readiness services in Yakima County and the surrounding area is greater than the supply. Dr. Wyckoff has developed a series of group-based skills training for children and young adults with a focus on developing skills needed for transitioning to the next phase of life, be it going to kindergarten or taking on more household management such as meal planning, cooking and clean up. Those socio-emotional, cognitive, and motor skills are fostered through purposeful activity in a social setting. “This is one of the first needs we identified in the community when launching the program,” states Dr. Wyckoff. “We knew more services were needed. We also know that students learn the most when learning experiences are authentic and involve real-world situations. These group-based skills learning workshops are a win-win as they enhance what we do in the classroom and provide valuable services to the community.”
Contact Information
Heather Fritz, PhD, OTR/L CHC
Associate Professor and Founding Director
School of Occupational Therapy
MultiCare Learning Center, Room 107
hfritz@pnwu.edu
509-249-7956
Jami Flick, PhD, MS, OTR/L
Director of Clinical Education
School of Occupational Therapy
MultiCare Learning Center, Room 123
jflick@pnwu.edu
509-249-7956
Kathleen Carrillo, BSHM
Executive Assistant
School of Occupational Therapy
MultiCare Learning Center, Room 105
kcarrillo@pnwu.edu
509-249-7839