AOTA President Visits Etown and discusses AOTA’s Centennial Vision

By Joanna Davis (MS, ’14), President of Pi Theta Epsilon

Pi Theta Epsilon, Elizabethtown College’s occupational therapy honors society, experienced a very exciting year so far! To help support our mission of promoting scholarly activities, we invited Dr. Ginny Stoffel, AOTA’s new president (as of July 2013), to campus.  Dr. Stoffel joined us February 23-25, 2014, and spent her days at a meet and greet with PTE members, speaking to classes, eating with faculty at lunch, and presenting to the community and college at Leffler Chapel. She took time to speak to individuals, to answer their questions about health care reform and the future of OT, and provide insight on what inspires her about the field. PTE invited representatives from the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Board, local practitioners, and all students to Dr. Stoffel’s presentation, during which she utilized her enchanting story-telling style.

Dr. Stoffel talked about new OT practitioners and their role in helping to attain AOTA’s  Centennial Vision. For me, Dr. Stoffel inspired me to look at occupational therapy outside the box. Why aren’t occupational therapists also senators? What about legislation? Could OTs be superintendents? How can we use our specialized knowledge about people and occupations to better our communities in a non-traditional sense? How can we explain to people what occupational therapy really is? Do you have any practical ideas on how you could do this? Please share your thoughts!