Keynote Presentation: Promoting Occupational Therapy: Let’s Change the Words, but not the Message!
Alyson Stover
MOT, JD, OTR/L, BCP
Have you ever perfected your OT elevator speech and thought it’s still not working? Do you continue to feel the burden of explaining WHAT you do before having a consumer ENGAGE in doing it? As members of the OT community, we have an obligation to advocate for our consumers, potential consumers, AND our profession. This presentation is going to walk through the theories, frameworks, and most importantly, strategies to advocate for all three at the same time in an exciting and efficient way.
Alyson Stover
A childhood family trauma introduced Alyson to the power of occupational therapy. A subsequent lifetime of study and practice convinced her that consumer advocacy was every bit as essential as her technical practice of occupational therapy. Now, Alyson and her husband own a private outpatient pediatric practice in a rural county in Pennsylvania and co-founded a non-profit organization that uses occupation to address community, societal and population needs. She currently serves as the Director of Clinical Services and continues to practice as an occupational therapist at Capable Kids. Alyson’s areas of expertise include pediatrics and holistic, occupation-centric approaches to substance misuse and trauma. Alyson also is committed to promotion of occupational therapy through grassroots advocacy initiatives and development of community collaborations to support community wellness. She has partnered with many organizations in her hometown to implement innovative, interdisciplinary programs through community grant funding and state funds. She is AOTA Board Certified in Pediatrics. Additionally, Alyson is an associate professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh where she also obtained her juris doctorate in law with a post-graduate certificate in health law. Her interests include using occupational therapy as a powerful driving-force for larger health care change, advancing occupational therapy’s national and global relevance and occupational therapy’s role as a leader in policy development and implementation. Alyson is humbled and honored to serve in this role and is eager to hear the voices of all members of the occupational therapy community.