Faculty Member

Area(s) of Interest

Current Project(s)

Janice P. Burke, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA

•  Child and family studies, focused on quality of services for families and their children with special needs (See website for more information).

http://jeffline.jefferson.edu/cfsrp/

Laura N. Gitlin, PhD

•  Family caregiving

•  Environmental modification and adaptations to disability

•  Home-based interventions to improve functional status of older adults

•  Quality of life in persons with dementia

Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health

E. Adel Herge, MS, OTR/L

•  Health promotion for adults with developmental disabilities

 Lifestyle re-design program for adults with developmental disabilities

Caryn Johnson, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA

•  Fieldwork Educator Attitudes

•  Professional behavior development in students

•  Historic development of fieldwork

Fieldwork Educator Attitudes Toward Active Participation in Level I Occupational Therapy Students

Stephen B. Kern, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA

•  Participatory action research, health promotion

•  Social competence and occupational choice with children from low-income urban environments 

•  Spinal cord injury

•  Development of a health promoting lifestyle redesign patient education
program for individuals with heart failure

•  Senior independence and health promotion at Philadelphia senior center

•  Development of an Upper Extremity Assessment for Persons with Spinal Cord Injury

Arlene Lorch, MS, OTR/L, CHES

•  OT's role in extending function and quality of life in the older adult

http://jeffline.jefferson.edu/cfsrp/

Kathleen Swenson Miller, PhD, OTR/L

•  Management of chronic health conditions in underserved populations

•  Using the internet as an adjunct to care

•  Health literacy

•  Building a meaningful life when disabled and homeless

•  E-health promotion for underserved populations Putting evidence based processes into the daily practice patterns of rehabilitation therapists

•  Exploring health literacy interventions for populations with chronic health conditions and a disability.

•  Life skills/work transition skills for homeless and formerly homeless individuals

Roseann C. Schaaf, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA

•  Sensory reactivity in children with autism

•  Neural and behavioral markers of sensory processing

•  Neuroplasticity and occupation

•  Neural and behavioral markers of atypical sensory processing in children with autism

•  Sensory processing and leisure activity choices in young adults

Susan Toth-Cohen, PhD, OTR/L

• Virtual reality teaching (academic and public health)

•  Evidence based practice

•  Cultural aspects of illness, disability, and healthcare

•  Family caregivers

•  Spirituality in OT practice

•  Second Life: Possibilities for graduate education and public health in a virtual environment

•  Putting evidence based processes into the daily practice patterns of rehabilitation therapists

• In-Touch: Mind, Body, and Spirit (Research Preceptor)

•  Experiences of occupational therapists incorporating clients’ religious and spiritual concerns in physical disabilities practice 

Shelley Wallock, DrPH, OTR/L

•  Inclusion

•  Transitions into the community

•  Ethics in allied healthcare research

•  Use of non-competitive games in learning for pre-schoolers

•  Cuba service learning program

•  St. Elizabeth's /Honickman learning center afterschool program