Department of Occupational Therapy Faculty Activities in 2024
Associate Professor Ana Allegretti, PhD, OTR, ATP, continues to be active in her role as chair of the Special Group Interests (SIGs) for the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA). She is an associate editor for the Assistive Technology Journal and is proud to announce that the impact factor of the journal is now 2.5. She presented at the European Seating Symposium in Dublin with Scott Burns, an occupational therapist from Dublin, Ireland, the results of their clinical implementation program for on-time mobility. Dr. Allegretti mentored three groups of students that presented at the Texas Society for Advancement of Health Professions conference in San Antonio. Dr. Allegretti also serves as a board member of the International Seating Symposium (ISS), which has been busy preparing for its 2025 conference, which will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Assistant Professor Angela Benfield, PhD, OTR, co-authored three chapters on professional reasoning (Chapter 25: Professional Reasoning in Practice in Willard & Spackman’s “Occupational Therapy,” 14th edition, and two chapters in “Schell and Schell, Professional Reasoning in Occupational Therapy” (Chapter 7: Scientific Reasoning and Evidence in Practice and Chapter 24: Development of Professional Reasoning). She presented eight sessions on future proofing occupational therapy at OT-Europe 2024.She is working with an international group on increasing resiliency in health professions, which has led to workshops in Canada and professional presentations in Europe. She continues to work on the Measure of Evidence-Informed Professional Thinking; she is currently working on extending the scales of the measure and adding three additional scales on self-regulated learning, numeracy and development of interprofessional competencies.
Assistant Professor Michael Bermudez, EdD, OTR, is developing a research agenda related to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in occupational therapy research and education. He presented “Creation of Adaptive Technology for People with Disabilities with the Use of Circuit Boards and Coding” at the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) INSPIRE 2024 Annual Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida, in March 2024. In October 2024, Dr. Bermudez presented “Using Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for Occupational Therapy Assessments” at the First European Occupational Therapy Congress in Krakow, Poland. He presented “Use of Machine Learning in Predicting Rehabilitation Outcomes” in November 2024 at the Texas Occupational Therapy Association Conference in Frisco, Texas. Dr. Bermudez will present at the Dr. Janet Falk-Kessler (JFK) Distinguished Lectureship at Columbia University in January 2025. His presentation, titled "Leveraging AI Tools in Occupational Therapy Research: Addressing Gaps in Efficiency, Accuracy, and Insight Generation," highlights his innovative contributions to occupational therapy and research methodology. Dr. Bermudez has been appointed as an incoming member of the Roster of Accreditation Evaluators (2025-2028 term) for the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE). He is currently running for the position of President of the Asian American Pacific Islander Occupational Therapy Association (AAPIOTA). He continues to mentor faculty, students and professionals in the United States and in Uganda on applying for Fulbright awards based on being a recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Teaching and Research Fellowship for 2022-23 in Uganda.
Associate Professor/Clinical Autumn Clegg, EdD, OTR co-authored a published article, “Sexual intimacy in persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and their partners: A pilot study” (Ramirez et al., 2024). She continues to focus on IPE collaboration and has been part of collaborative grant submissions for community fall prevention initiatives. Dr. Clegg is also part of an externally funded IPE project that is focused on facilitating conversations with people with aphasia.
Assistant Professor Mei-Ling Lin, PhD, OTR, achieved significant academic milestones this year, including three first- or senior-author peer-reviewed journal articles, one book chapter and eight conference presentations. She serves as a co-investigator for the federally funded grant titled “Project ASPIRE: Advancing Successful Preparation of Interprofessional Related Services in Education Settings” from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Lin is committed to recruiting Project ASPIRE scholars and submitting a new course proposal as part of the enhanced pediatric curriculum outlined in the grant.
Professor and Department Chair Bridgett Piernik-Yoder, PhD, OTR, FAOTA, is project director for a $1.2 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs grant. The grant will support the development and implementation of Project ASPIRE to enhance the preparation of occupational therapy and speech-language pathology students who are committed to working with school age children. Dr. Piernik-Yoder continues in her three-year term as the chair of the AOTA Special Interest Section Council. She also serves on the leadership team of the AOTA Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Mentoring Program and Institute. Dr. Piernik-Yoder is also the 2024-2025 President of the University of Texas Kenneth I Shine Academy, which serves the University of Texas System (UTS) through the support and promotion of excellence in all aspects of health science education, including educational research, scholarship and leadership.
Associate Professor Chinyu Wu, PhD, OTR completed two photovoice studies last year and both were presented at the 2024 American Occupational Therapy Association Annual Conference, titled “Assessing Employment Needs of People with Mental Illness: A Photovoice Study" and "Managing Type 2 Diabetes through the Lens of People with Serious Mental Illness: A Photovoice Study.” The former was co-presented with community partners from Prosumers International, a peer-led organization for people with mental illness, and the latter was co-presented with Laura Pavitt who is currently a third-year OTD student. A revised version of the latter poster was presented in 2024 Integrated Care Conference by Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) in San Antonio. Dr. Wu submitted a small R01 grant in October to National Institutes of Health (NIH) titled “Improving Diabetes Treatment Outcomes for People with Serious Mental Illness Who Experience Homelessness: A Pilot and Feasibility Study.”