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Academy of Research In Occupational Therapy

AOREstablished in 1983, the AOTF Academy of Research in Occupational Therapy recognizes individuals who have made exemplary, distinguished, and sustained contributions toward the science of occupational therapy. Every year, the Academy of Research invites nominations for membership. After consideration of the nominations and supporting materials, the Academy selects individuals to be inducted into this distinguished body of researchers. Usually, inductions occur at the next AOTA Annual Conference and Exposition.  

Nominations submission deadline was October 30, 2024.

Nomination Procedures

View Presentations from the 2022 Academy of Research Inductees and 2022 Early & Mid-Career Awardees

View Presentations from the 2021 Academy of Research Inductees and 2021 Early & Mid-Career Awardees

2024 Inductees to the Academy

2024

Lindy Clemson, PhD, MAppSc (Research), BAppSc (OT), Dip OT, FOTARA, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sydney School of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney Sydney, Australia

2024

Professor Emeritus Lindy Clemson is a specialist in public health research on ageing and an occupational therapist with a PhD in epidemiology. She has led research and advocacy internationally for best practice in home evaluation and falls prevention using environmental and enablement strategies. Her research has transformed approaches to fall prevention and provided new approaches and strategies to occupational therapy and medical practitioners and to a lay audience.

This work positively impacts the lives of countless older people around the world. Clemson’s contributions have been recognized by national and international entities, including being elected as an inaugural fellow of the Australian Occupational Therapy Research Academy, reflecting her exemplary, distinguished, and sustained contributions to the science of occupational therapy.

2024

Roberta Gittens Pineda, PhD, OTR/L, CNT, Associate Professor, Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California Los Angeles, Calif.

2024

Dr. Roberta Pineda is a tenured Associate Professor and Director of the NICU Laboratory within the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California. She is also a founder and co-chair of the Neonatal Therapy Certification Board. Dr. Pineda’s impactful research program investigates factors that support or impede the function of infants born prematurely with a long-term goal of developing strategies and interventions that can optimize neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Over the past decade, she has received $7 million in grant funding to support the development and implementation of several innovative programs, assessments, and products that have revolutionized key aspects of the NICU environment, including an evidence-based multimodal program that facilitates positive sensory exposures in the NICU, a standardized neonatal feeding outcome measure, a new bottle technology that paces the timing of food intake, and a community-based program that addresses gaps in therapy services associated with the transition from NICU to home, especially among populations with known health disparities.

2024

Ganesh M. Babulal, PhD, OTD, MSCI, MOT, OTR/L, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

2024

Dr. Ganesh M. Babulal is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Babulal’s research interests reside in investigating the relationship between cognition and mental health and its impact on instrumental activities of daily living in healthy older adults and those with chronic neurological diseases.

Consistent with these interests, his funded research studies include (1) characterizing functional changes in older adults using biomarkers (structural and functional imaging, cerebrospinal fluid, plasma), (2) predicting a decline in performance and behavior via novel methodologies, (3) identifying reliable noncognitive behavioral markers that predict preclinical disease state, and (4) examining the relationship between mental health and cognitive functioning on brain health.

As his research evolved, its progression grew from structural and social determinants of health (SSDOH) and health disparities while addressing the translational gap. This work has scaled up to now examine how upstream SSDOH factors impact adverse health outcomes in underrepresented, minoritized groups in the United States and vulnerable populations in Low and Middle-Income Countries.

 

 

Members of the Academy of Research

View Full List of Academy of Research Members At-A-Glance. * indicates a deceased member.

Betty R. Hasselkus, PhD, OTR, FAOTA
Helene Ross

Betty R. Hasselkus, PhD, OTR, FAOTA

2000

Dr. Hasselkus "is an Emeritus Professor of Kinesiology/Occupational Therapy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she served as Program Director for ten years. . . . Dr. Hasselkus has focused her research, teaching and practice on the everyday occupational experience of people in the community, with a special emphasis on family care giving for older family members, physician-family caregiver relationships, meanings of everyday occupation to dementia day care staff, and the meaning of doing occupational therapy. . . .

In 2005, she was awarded the AOTA Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship and was editor of The American Journal of Occupational Therapy from 1998-2003.  Dr. Hasselkus was named one of the 100 Influential People in Occupational Therapy by AOTA.


Q Aand A

Identify three words that others have used to describe you.   
Well Organized; Smart; Down to Earth

How do you hope to make a difference in the world through research?   
To expand therapists' understandings about the experience of working together with people within their social contexts, and to increase our appreciation of the everyday lives of our clients.

What is one piece of advice you have for individuals considering a career in science and research?  
Have a love of learning.

Beside your own areas of inquiry, what is one research priority that you believe is important for the future of occupational science and occupational therapy?   
Link our areas of research to research in other professions; strengthen our place in the therapeutic research world.

Describe the most important role that mentors played in your professional journey.  
Most important early on (Master's level);  mentors kept me from feeling separated from the profession when I had little kids, brought part-time opportunities to my attention.  Later I was much more on my own and I guess more or less "mentored" myself.  

Identify a favorite occupation that renews you outside of your work.   
Piano, piano, piano -- I love it.  

What has been the most surprising or rewarding aspects of a career in science and research?   
For me, I think the fact that being a published researcher in a world-class university opened up doors for me around the world.  I had never thought in those terms as I was working on the doctorate, but it happened for me and definitely changed my life.  


Selected References

Hasselkus, BR.  (2006). The 2006 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lecture: The world of everyday occupation: real people, real lives. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 60, 627-640.

Hasselkus, BR. (2011). (2nd Ed.) The meaning of everyday occupation. Thorofare, NJ : SLACK.

Hasselkus, BR & Murray, BJ.  (2007). Everyday occupation, well-being, and identity: the experience of caregivers in families with dementia. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 61, 9-20.  

Rosa, SA & Hasselkus, BR.  (2005).  Finding common ground with patients: the centrality of compatibility.  The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 59, 198-208.

 

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