About Kathleen Schlenz
Job title: Assistant Professor; Consultant
Degrees: MOT ’91, ABD
Career stage: Late-career
State of practice: Salem, MA; Westerly, RI
Current practice settings: Private practice, Education / training (full-time teaching)
Lived career experiences/transitions:
- Changing specialty
- Starting a family while maintaining a full-time practice
- Starting a private practice
- Non-clinical careers
- Rural medicine
- Burnout & Recovery
Graduation year from the UW School of Medicine: 1991
Specialty/subspecialty: Pediatrics; Higher Education
Teaching roles: Full-time faculty in MS in OT program
Research or other professional interests: Infant Mental Health; CYSHCN and Families; Occupational Justice; Critical Civic Engagement
Kathleen’s Bio: Kathleen Schlenz is an Assistant Professor in the OT Department at Salem State University. Her favorite roles are as mother, daughter, sister, friend, learner, teacher, gardener, and college/WNBA basketball fan. She has had the great privilege of practicing as a licensed occupational therapist for over 40 years, primarily working with and learning from children with disabilities and their families. Kathleen’s research interest lies in amplifying the voices and lived experiences of primary caregivers of young children with disabilities. She is passionate about relationship-based and civically engaged approaches to learning and increasing representation of marginalized communities in the profession of OT.