Meet the experts

Susan Bazyk, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA is a Professor in the Occupational Therapy Program at Cleveland State University where she has taught for the past 32 years. Sue's research and publications have contributed to several areas of practice including parent-professional collaboration, understanding food refusal, occupation-based programming, and mental health promotion in children and youth. She is the editor of a book entitled Mental health promotion, prevention,  and intervention with children and youth: A guiding framework for  occupational therapy (2011) and the 2013 AOTA Practice Guideline on the same topic. Currently, she is the project director of Every Moment Counts: Promoting Children's Mental Health Throughout the Day (20 12-present), a mental health promotion initiative originally funded by the Ohio Department of Education. This initiative focuses on building capacity of occupational therapists and school personnel in applying a public health approach to mental health. Additionally, model programs designed to promote participation and enjoyment during lunch, recess and after-school have been developed, implemented and evaluated throughout Ohio.

Dena Bishop, OTR/L is a veteran pediatric occupational therapist specializing in school-based therapy for students with multiple diagnoses including ASD, ADHD, CP, and DD.  She earned her B.S degree in OT from the University of Pittsburgh in 2000.  Her 17 years of experience have granted her significant knowledge from the vast number of therapists she has collaborated with and the resources she has collected and implemented over the years.  Dena has spent her entire career engaging and empowering students from 18 months through 21 years of age with diverse cultures while working in schools in OH, PA, CA, HI, and FL.  She has academia experience as an adjunct professor for the OTA program at Polk State College in Winter Haven, FL.  Her passion for OT and growth mindset continually challenges her to excel in her field.  

Dr. Poole is a Professor in the Occupational Therapy Graduate Program at the University of New Mexico.  She received her BS degree in Occupational Therapy from Colorado State University, her MA degree in Educational Psychology from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and her PhD in motor learning/motor control from the University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Poole’s research interest is in scleroderma and the functional impact of the disease on tasks of daily living, oral hygiene, parenting and employment.  She has conducted a number of studies examining rehabilitation interventions with people with scleroderma.  Dr. Poole and her colleagues Drs. Khanna and Mendelson received a PCORI grant to revise and test a self-management program for persons with scleroderma.  She speaks yearly at patient conferences for people with scleroderma and has authored several textbook chapters on rehabilitation for persons with scleroderma.