Meet the experts

Ellen S. Cohn, ScD, OTR/L, FAOTA – Ellen Cohn is a Clinical Professor and Program Director of the entry-level OTD program at Boston University – College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Dr. Cohn earned a BS degree in Occupational Therapy from Boston University, an Ed.M. degree in Counseling and Consulting Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a ScD degree in Therapeutic Studies from Boston University. In addition to directing the occupational therapy program, Dr. Cohn teaches courses related to clinical reasoning, occupational therapy intervention, evidence-based practice, group leadership, and critical analysis of theory and research in health, adaptation, and disability. Dr. Cohn has 40 years of experience in the academic setting serving as an academic fieldwork coordinator, faculty and program director. Dr. Cohn’s research focuses on the perspectives of children, adolescents and families related to personal, contextual and occupational factors that support or inhibit successful participation in school, at home, and in the community. She is committed to understanding their lives, hopes and desires, and valued outcomes from occupational therapy. Her research advocates for OTs to communicate with clients and use measures and document outcomes that are congruent with clients’ priorities. She completed a NIH funded mixed- methods study exploring the culturally based explanatory models of health and illness among parents of children with asthma. Other studies have focused on the strategies parents use to promote the social participation of their children with acquired brain injuries, fidelity to the principles of sensory integration intervention and parental concerns of families with children with sensory processing challenges and their perspectives on intervention outcomes. She is currently working on an IES funded research project to understand how and when high-school students with autism spectrum disorder learn the skills necessary for self-management of daily responsibilities. She has developed programs with the Museum of Science, Boston to support inclusion for youth with autism spectrum disorder in community-based settings that are now being replicated by other OT programs in the US. She was a co-editor of Willard and Spackman’s Occupational Therapy 10th and 11th editions. Dr. Cohn served as the first AOTA New England Regional Fieldwork Consultant, developed an AOTA curriculum for fieldwork educators (SPICES), served on the AOTA SI SIS, consulted to and served as a member of the AOTA Commission on Practice, helped revise the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework and is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association, and member of the AJOT and OTJR Editorial Boards. In these roles she promoted best practices in fieldwork education, clinical reasoning and provided the professional with current resources that reflect the values and ideals of occupational therapy practice. She is the recipient of numerus awards including the AOTA Slagle Lectureship Award, AOTF A. Jean Ayres Research Award, the MAOT Herbert J. Hall Award, the MAOT Catherine Trombly Award, the Sargent College Whitney Powers Award for Teaching Excellence, the USC Wilma West lectureship and the Texas OT Association Breakfast with a Scholar Keynote Presentation Award.

Marsha Dunn Klein OTR/L, MEd, FAOTA is a pediatric occupational therapist who has spent a career specializing in pediatric feeding challenges. She received her bachelor's degree in occupational therapy from Sargent College of Boston University in 1971. She received a master’s degree in education with an emphasis on special education in 1975 from the University of Arizona. Marsha has co-authored Pre-Feeding Skills editions one and two and Mealtime Participation Guide, Homemade Blended Formula Handbook with Suzanne Evans Morris and Feeding and Nutrition for the Child with Special Needs with Tracy Delaney. She lives in Tucson, Arizona and travels to present locally, nationally and internationally on pediatric feeding issues.

Mr. Turnquist was initially trained as an occupational therapist in 1992 at St. Ambrose University. Prior to joining the faculty at St. Ambrose in 1999, he has worked with patients with a variety of neurological, cardiopulmonary, and orthopedic conditions within acute care, rehabilitation, long-term care, and outpatient rehabilitation settings and completed a Masters Degree in Organizational Leadership in 2010. Mr. Turnquist has presented locally and nationally on assistive technology solutions and was the lead designer for Jim’s Place: A Virtual reality Community-Based Assistive Technology House for AT solutions. Mr. Turnquist brought 3D printing into the curriculum and AT services in the Occupational Therapy department at St Ambrose in 2015. He has designed many devices that are used regional and nationally and he has won top honors at the national Maddak Awards for Assistive Technology from 2005 – 2008,2013 and 2016. Mr. Turnquist retired from St. Ambrose University in 2018 and moved into private practice with a focus on AT and designing. Many of his AT designs can be found on the OT and AT channel on the Thingiverse web site.