Current Student Bios

Daphne is a practicing pediatric occupational therapist in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She is originally from California where she began her undergraduate studies at California State University, Long Beach before moving on to her MScOT at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Since beginning her OT career in 2015 she has become a wife, a mother to two girls, and is currently in the process of starting her own company, Weevolve Occupational Therapy. Daphne is greatly looking forward to advancing her competence and confidence by completing the NYU OTD program.

Joseph is an early intervention occupational therapist in New York City who is also completing his post-professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree. As an early interventionist, his practice interests lie mostly in infant and toddler mental health and parent-infant interaction and co-regulation. He is also interested in promoting occupational therapists' role in early childhood mental health and in supporting the socio-emotional development of infants and toddlers in home-based early intervention practice settings. 

LaTanya has been a practicing occupational therapist for 15 years in Cleveland, Ohio. She currently works for the Cleveland Clinic, a non-profit medical center that provides clinical and hospital care. She has had the pleasure of working in a wide range of settings from skilled nursing, inpatient rehabilitation, and currently home care. Working in these settings has allowed her to help change the lives of people and families who have been affected by disabilities, chronic illness, and acute illness from all cultural backgrounds.

Through her professional career, she has seen how one's mental health is directly affected while recovering from an illness. This has influenced her desire to further her education and pursue a doctorate education in OT. Her goal for the OTD program is to increase her comprehension of mental health. During her 11 years working for Cleveland Clinic Homecare, she often travels to and provides services in underserved areas. As a result, she has seen first hand the lack of resources and services available to many of her patients who are in need of mental health services. She hopes to make a change in underserved communities lacking assistance for mental health through the development of mental health programs using OT models and theories.

Runa Koli is a healthcare director and occupational therapist with over 12 years of experience spanning multiple areas of healthcare, including service delivery, business strategy, risk management, and quality assurance. She specializes in evaluations of patients to design holistic care plans incorporating medical, physical, and social needs to improve health and reduced risk for re-hospitalization with a proven record of improved outcomes in numerous health systems across NJ, NY, PA, MA, and CA. She is actively engaged in medical humanitarian projects to serve the underserved in Africa, India, and Jamaica. She is currently a doctorate candidate at NYU to further advance her passion for improving health and well-being through innovations. 

With a heart to heal and encourage and innate creativity, occupational therapy has been a wonderful vocation for Dan. Over the last two years, Dan has found immense fulfillment in the specialization of pediatric OT where he can uplift families and boost young persons toward their highest quality of life. Dan has traveled all over the country with his therapeutic skills, with Texas and Indiana being the most recent locations. Now, as he finishes his doctorate ePortfolio and his excellent experience with the NYU OTD program, he is preparing for the next adventure!

Anthonia has been practicing as an occupational therapist for over ten years. She is a wife and mother to two amazing boys. She recently started her therapeutic feeding company, LeNoir Bebe. She received her master's in Occupational Therapy from the New York Institute of Technology. Her love and focus have been in pediatrics, where she has been a school-based occupational therapist in the NYC Department of Education system since 2011. She has also worked in adult home care and early intervention. Her love for pediatrics has motivated her to look further at international outreach and support for the pediatric population, in Africa more specifically. Anthonia is currently a candidate in the NYU post-professional OTD program, where she plans further to develop her leadership skills and competency within the pediatric practice. 

Carla started her career in occupational therapy practicing as an OT assistant for 25 years before gaining a bachelor of science degree in Interdisciplinary Health Studies and subsequently graduating in 2017 with a master’s degree in Occupational Therapy. Carla is a passionate and caring individual who serves her community through child find efforts and volunteering as a Special Olympics coordinator. She is enrolled at NYU seeking her OTD and plans to broaden her role as an educator, public speaker, community liaison, and public advocate for those with disabilities.

Kelly lives and works in Orlando, Florida but was born and raised outside of Detroit, Michigan. She works in a large metropolitan hospital, with the adult population in the cardiovascular department. The majority of her time is spent with critically ill patients in the Cardiovascular ICU and the Advanced Cardiac Surgical Unit. This is the focus of her portfolio, working to advance the presence of occupational therapy with advanced heart failure patients. Her career goals are to maintain her clinical work, continue to advance her cardiac skills, and teach and guest lecture. Additional career goals include leadership, publishing work on cardiac patient care with rehab, and movement toward executive roles in the hospital setting.

She is very close with her family: her parents, two sisters, and their families, including her adorable nieces and nephew. Kelly has a dog named Pavel who is her sidekick and goes almost everywhere with her. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, and before the pandemic enjoyed going to the weekend farmer's markets and going out with friends, trying new and unique foods, and running.

Janvi is a doctoral candidate in the NYU Steinhardt Department of Occupational Therapy. While attending NYU for her OTD, she is concurrently working in New York City with school-aged children who have a wide range of diagnoses. She is also working with the residents of a group home to provide in-house healthcare services. She has a master's degree in Occupational Therapy from NYU and a bachelor's degree from India. Her research is focused on children with developmental disorders and their primary caregivers’ health and well-being. 

Jessie is a native Southern Californian. She graduated with a bachelor of arts in Psychology from USC in 2015. Jessie moved to New York City in 2015 to pursue her master of science in Occupational Therapy (OT) at New York University. She lived in Manhattan for two years and fell in love with the city. Her fieldwork placements included mental health in the Bronx, stroke rehabilitation at NYU Rusk Hospital, and school-based OT on the Lower East Side. Following her fieldwork, Jessie worked for two years at a pediatric clinic in Orange County. She recently moved to Hermosa Beach, CA to pursue a new adventure with PlaySense Kids Inc.  

Jessie has always been passionate about children, especially children with varying abilities and learning styles. She is excited to continue practicing sensory integrative, occupational therapy at PlaySense. She believes that every child is unique and their uniqueness should foster their growth, not hinder it.  

Jessie is a published author. Her article, "Safety and Feasibility of a First-Person View, Full-Body Interaction Game For Telerehabilitation Post- Stroke," was successfully published in the spring of 2018. In 2019, she received her first advanced certification; Certification in Leadership in Ayres Sensory Integration (CLASI). 

In her free time, Jessie is an avid yogi and surfer. She enjoys spinning, hiking, boxing, reading, church activities, and taking photographs on her polaroid. She jumps at any opportunity to be outside and in the water. Jessie loves to spend quality time with her friends, family, and puppy, Cleo.