Support our DEI Team to get to the conference!

Hello, our names are Jamie Shefferd, Juan Hernandez, Elana Spetner, Ben Byer, Ashley O’Toole, and Ismari Altamirano. We are third-year Masters of Occupational Therapy students at Loma Linda University. Currently, we are all completing our Level II Fieldwork in a variety of different medical settings. Our group is passionate about the Occupational Therapy (OT) profession and the client-centered care that it provides to those individuals who are in need of services. As OTs, we will encounter clients from various backgrounds, ethnicities, and identities, so we believe that it is important that OTs have a general understanding of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). It is for this very reason that for our Master's Program Research we wanted to focus on DEI and how this crucial topic is being taught in OT programs throughout the country.

 

For over a year now our group has been collecting qualitative and quantitative research that identifies if and how OT programs are teaching future practitioners about DEI. It is essential for DEI to be taught within the didactic portion of our learning as OT is based on client-centered care. In looking at our research we have been able to identify where OT programs are in teaching DEI to future practitioners so that they may more easily identify, understand, and value the needs of our ever-increasing diverse population of patients and clients and provide them with the unique care that they deserve.

 

Our research team has been accepted to present at the OTAC 2020 Conference & Expo in October 2022 in Santa Clara, CA, and requires ample time and effort to reserve accommodations and spots at the conference to present our research findings. By raising funds now we can secure our positions and the resources needed such as hotel, transportation, and membership licenses to be eligible to present for 6 individual occupational therapy students. The funds will solely be dedicated to the purchases of the resources listed above in order to present our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion OT pedagogy research. Our goal is to book and secure the necessary resources by August 2022.

Please view this  short intro to our research which was presented at our Programs Research Colloquium:  https://youtu.be/bumR8Ab9INw