Baylor Post-Professional OTD Students Pursue Academic Aspirations
With over four decades of combined experience in occupational therapy practice, what drove Katie Brown, Jen Gunn, and Anne Bradley to return to school to earn their Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) degrees? For each, a desire to train and equip the next generation of occupational therapists was a significant part of the equation. So today, these three occupational therapists find themselves enrolled in the Post-professional OTD program in Baylor University’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences.
After earning her master’s degree in occupational therapy in 2014, Katie Brown began working at a skilled nursing facility. After six years, she transitioned to home health, where she has been working primarily with the older adult population for the last four years. Ever since her master’s program, Katie has aspired to eventually earn her doctorate, believing that it is important to strive for the highest level of education she can attain in her profession.
As she practiced and waited for the right time to begin her doctorate program, she also began to sense a growing desire to enter academia, which helped lead her to Baylor’s Post-professional OTD program.
“I really chose Baylor because of the program curriculum,” she shares.
The Baylor curriculum includes a special focus on hybrid teaching and learning as well as core courses that help prepare students for teaching in occupational therapy programs. Anne Bradley, who served as an adjunct instructor for an entry-level master’s occupational therapy program early in her career, shares Katie’s enthusiasm for the teaching-focused curriculum.
“When I first started teaching, I knew how to be an OT. But nobody had taught me how to teach. Developing a lesson plan, creating exams and activities, giving lectures—I had no idea how to do that,” she says. “The lessons we’re doing right now are what I needed all those years ago.”
An occupational therapist for 25 years, Anne has served in a variety of settings, including children and youth and hippotherapy. She hopes to return to teaching and believes it is important for her to obtain at least the same level of education as the students she’s instructing—especially as many occupational therapists today enter the field at the doctoral level.
“I want to make sure, if I’m able to teach when I’m done with the program, that I come with the credentials that back up the experience and knowledge that I’m bringing to the table.”
“I want to make sure, if I’m able to teach when I’m done with the program, that I come with the credentials that back up the experience and knowledge that I’m bringing to the table,” she says.
Jen Gunn is also sensing that academia may be in her future. She graduated with her master’s degree in 2013 and has served as an occupational therapist in a variety of settings, most recently in outpatient children and youth. Inspired by her own experiences as a foster parent, Jen has recently been taking continuing education courses focused on trauma informed care for children and youth.
“One day, I want to enter the world of academia and hopefully infuse some of what I’ve learned about trauma informed care for the occupational therapy profession,” she shares. “That’s why I started looking at PP-OTD programs that could open the door for me.”
With their interest in higher education, Katie, Anne, and Jen all reported enjoying one of the unique opportunities offered by Baylor’s Post-professional OTD program—serving as adjunct instructors for the Entry-level OTD program. In February 2023, the three Post-professional students traveled to Waco to teach during one of the onsite immersion lab sessions for the hybrid Entry-level students. They assisted with the Neuroscience lab as well as Foundations of Occupational Therapy.
“I had worked with fieldwork students, but this was my first experience actually teaching. And I loved everything about it,” Katie says. “The professors had it so organized, which helped. I was honestly nervous, but the organization and how prepared everyone was really helped my nerves.
“Afterwards, I told them, if they have any cancellations, I would love to come back!”
The only one of the three with prior teaching experience, Anne also appreciated the opportunity to serve as an adjunct. While she acknowledges that technology has significantly increased accessibility for education (including in Baylor’s Post-professional OTD program, which is fully online), she stresses the importance of relationships in the occupational therapy profession.
“To me, a crucial part of being an OT is being able to relate to people and understand what they’re saying by their body language and by the words they use. Anytime you can be face to face with somebody, I think that is only going to help and benefit a student in learning how to be a good therapist,” she says.
Anne, along with Katie and Jen, shared how their experiences working as occupational therapists enhanced their teaching abilities and added value to the lessons they imparted to the Entry-level students.
“It was an awesome experience to be able to share some of my experience and knowledge with these future OTs who were really engaged and participatory in the labs and with the lab content.”
“It was an awesome experience to be able to share some of my experience and knowledge with these future OTs who were really engaged and participatory in the labs and with the lab content,” Jen says.
Baylor’s Post-professional OTD program is only 16 months in length, so Anne, Katie, and Jen—who all started in August 2022—are already now preparing to begin their doctoral capstone courses. With their substantial experiences as occupational therapists now supplemented by the professional and academic development of the OTD program, these future doctors are preparing to make an impact in their profession, in academia, and beyond.