The Department of Occupational Therapy will be hosting the inaugural Sandra Edwards Colloquium on February 18, 2017. The keynote speaker will be Elizabeth R. Skidmore, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA. Elizabeth Skidmore is an occupational therapist with expertise in neurorehabilitation, and the Associate Professor and Chair of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Occupational Therapy. Her federally funded research program addresses two foci:
- Associations among cognitive impairments, mood symptoms, and activities of daily living in persons with brain injury and neurocognitive decline; and
- Interventions designed to promote independence and community integration among adults with cognitive impairments.
She is the recipient of the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association Academic Educator Award and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award. She is also the recipient of the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association Inaugural Research Award, and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine Deborah Wilkerson Research Career Award. She is a member of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation Academy of Research and the American Occupational Therapy Association Roster of Fellows. In 2016, she was the first occupational therapist to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on early career scientists.
This annual series will be funded by an endowment from Sandra Edwards and her husband Al Garcia. Sandra Edwards is a native of Gainesville, Florida, and a 1965 graduate of the UF Occupational Therapy program.
Occupational Therapy Practitioners will have the opportunity to earn up to five (5) CE hours.