Allison Sullivan

Background

About Allison Sullivan

As an occupational therapy scholar and educator, my primary research interests include pedagogy in occupational therapy education, cognitive disabilities, and trauma-informed care. My work on these topics has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Occupational Therapy and The Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice. As Lead Faculty for AIC’s Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate program, I mentor doctoral capstone projects and teach courses in scholarship of teaching and learning in occupational therapy and occupational therapy theory. I also provide instruction for the entry-level MSOT program in courses on group dynamics, the development of psychosocial occupations and the mental health process in OT. As an occupational therapist, I have dedicated my career toward improving the lives of individuals with cognitive disabilities and health conditions that interfere with participation and quality of life across the lifespan. To that end, I have worked in day habilitation, school system, and residential care settings in a career spanning three decades. In this pursuit, I have endeavored to exemplify Karen Jacob’s call to action in the promotion of the profession through “Words, Images, and Actions”. My innovations as a representative of the profession are best illustrated by my approach to and early adoption of social media as a method to increase my outreach professionally. Many OT practitioners and consumers joined the international online community since Dr. Tina Champagne and I created the Otalk2US Twitter chat that we began hosting in 2012. Tweets carrying our hashtag now have tens of millions of views. Due to my online presence, I have gained wide recognition by others as the first person they identify as an occupational therapist and have been happy to serve my profession in this capacity for the past decade. I sit on the boards of the Martin Luther King Jr Family Services of Springfield, Allen Cognitive Network, and The Lighthouse, a psychosocial clubhouse in Springfield. I also serve as president of the Human Rights Committee for Viability, Inc, an organization which provides day habilitation services and programs across the US. When not teaching or volunteering, I enjoy gardening and yoga. I have been a is a certified group exercise and yoga instructor (RYT) for many years.