Director's Message Spring 2024

By Dr. Paula Rushton

To unite and guide our School of Occupational Therapy faculty and staff in the navigation of this ever-changing landscape, we are engaging in the development of our new 2024-2027 Strategic Plan. Our process is facilitated by Fire Inside Leadership and includes two back-to-back full days of planning involving all faculty and staff, followed by smaller working groups tackling refinement of all components of our Plan, including our Vision, Mission, Focus Areas, Measurable Targets, and Key Initiatives. Our Plan will support thoughtful decision-making regarding our future initiatives and resource allocation. Stay tuned; we’ll share the final version this summer!

As things move and shift in our macro environment, so do things in our microenvironment. After 18 years with our School of Occupational Therapy, Dr. Grace Warner will retire in June 2024! As her retirement approaches, our Appointments Committee has been hard at work reviewing the remarkable 18 applications received for our posted tenure track Assistant Professor position. With three short-listed candidates, interviews are underway for a hopeful July 1, 2024 start date. Thank you to our committee, which is composed of Niki Kiepek (Chair), Karen Landry, Karen Joudrey, Dorothy Edem, and Brianna Swinimer, for this work!

Looking forward to September, we received 258 applications this year that met admission requirements, a 27.8% increase over last year. Of the 258 applicants, 113 (43.8%) were from Atlantic Canada, with 66 (58.4%), 32 (28.3%), 6 (5.3%), and 9 (8.0%) from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland respectively. We continue to prioritize Atlantic Canada applicants and those who self-identify under the Faculty of Health Equitable Admissions Policy. With Crystal Dieleman at the helm of our Admissions Committee, supported by faculty and staff, our first round of admission offers was sent in April.

We continue to work towards completing our curriculum renewal with September 2025 as our launch date. With deep respect for our place in Mi’kma’ki, we strive to meet our commitments to the recommendations from the Occupational Therapy Statement of Commitment to Indigenous Peoples in Canada (2023), as well as our profession’s joint position statement Toward Equity and Justice: Enacting an Intersectional Approach to Social Accountability in Occupational Therapy (2023). I am constantly inspired by the collaborative nature of our faculty during this period of curriculum renewal, who always have our student and community needs at the forefront of planning and decision-making.

As always, community outreach remains integral to our School. Most recently, Sara Abdo (School of Occupational Therapy instructor), in collaboration with practicing OTs who are also Dal alumni (Stephanie Bizzeth, Xavier Hartley, Andrew Edwards, and Titi Odediran), partnered with Promoting Leadership in Health for African Nova Scotians (PLANS) to connect high school students to occupational therapy. The high school PLANS co-op program connects youth across the city with similar goals of entering the health professions, connects them with mentors that reflect them, and introduces them to post-secondary admissions pathways. Through a half-day visit to our School, youth were guided through a series of hands-on occupational therapy activities such as wheelchair skills, adaptive home environments, and guided meditation.

Many of you may have attended the recent CAOT Conference held in Halifax in May. It was a wonderful event and offered the opportunity for our faculty and students to share their research in over 30 presentations and workshops! In this newsletter we describe some recent research accomplishments that highlight the diverse contributions our faculty make to society.

I hope you enjoy this edition of our newsletter!