The Wizard of OT

This blog emerged from a year-and-a-half-long journey of immersing myself in the evidence behind effective methods in higher education. Throughout this process, I discovered that while education is evolving, occupational therapy education is often lagging behind.

I believe that when you think, “someone should do ____,” that someone is you! So, when the thought came that, ‘someone should make sure that OT educators know all of this…..I decided to see if there were any blogs or podcasts specific to OT education. While there were a variety of OT blogs for clinicians there was nothing specific for educators. So, this blog was born. It is meant to fill a need, to provide a place for OT educators to learn about the changes in higher ed so that they may implement evidence-based practices in their classrooms.

Our blogging team*

The primary blogger is Heather Kuhaneck along with two important guest bloggers, Michelle Gorenberg and Jeni Dulek. They have run a successful book club for educators for many years and have implemented many of the techniques that will be described via this site.

Heather Kuhaneck, Ph.D., OTR/L, FAOTA, is a Professor and Founding Program Director of Occupational Therapy in the Recreation, Tourism, and Sports Management Department at Southern CT State University.

Prior to this, she taught occupational therapy students for 19 years at Sacred Heart University. Dr. Kuhaneck is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association and the co- editor of Case-Smith’s Occupational Therapy for Children and Adolescents. She is also the editor / co-editor of 3 editions of Autism: A Comprehensive Occupational Therapy Approach and 2 editions of Making Play Just Right. She is a co-author of the Sensory Processing Measure first and second editions. 

Throughout the process of developing a brand new occupational therapy program, she engaged in a variety of continiung education experiences about higher education practices. She became certified in Flipped Classroom, completed a practicum in Visual Thinking Strategies, and completed courses to use AI in education. (FYI-*ChatGPT may be used to revise and reword blog posts but the content will be the intellectual property of the blogger.)

Other guest bloggers will also be sharing their knowledge and expertise.