The Department of Occupational Therapy is pleased to share the following faculty highlights from the 2025-2026 academic year. Please join us in celebrating this small selection of the many accomplishments of our world-class faculty members. You may click the photo of any faculty member to learn more about the important work they are doing in the Occupational Therapy field.
- Co-authored “Protocol for a Pilot Two-Arm Crossover Randomized Controlled Trial of the ACTIVE Intervention for Older Adults With and Without Mild Dementia and Their Care Partners” in the Journal of Clinical Medicine 2026,15(4), 1341.
- Co-authored "Content Validation and Perceived Value of Text Messages to Promote Physical Activity Among US Older Adults and Care Partners” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2026, 23(2), 258.
Patricia A. Gentile
Clinical Associate Professor; Program Director of the MS and Entry-Level OTD
- Presented “Elevating Occupational Therapy: Advancing Top-of-License Practice to Enhance Outcomes and Professional Impact” at the 2025 NYSOTA Conference.
- Promoted to Associate Clinical Professor, effective academic year 2026-2027.
- Co-authored “Does speed of processing training improve everyday life functional activity in traumatic brain injury: A pilot randomized controlled trial” in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2025, 36(4), 714–729.
- Co-authoured “Enhancing everyday memory and participation in multiple sclerosis: A pilot study of a metacognitive strategy-based intervention” in Multiple Sclerosis Journal – Experimental, Translational and Clinical, 2025, 11(2).
- Presented “Enhancing Clinical Skill Development for Graduate OT Students in Adult Rehabilitation: A Structured Lab Approach for Fieldwork Level 2 Readiness” at the 2026 AOTA Conference.
- Authored a chapter titled "Housing Options and Access” in the textbook Occupational therapy in Community and Population Health Practice, 4th edition.
- Co-authored “Improving relationship-based feeding of infants and young children with disabilities: developing a guideline for practice” in the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 13(4), 1-12.
- Co-authored Kramer and Hinojosa’s Frames of Reference for Pediatric Occupational Therapy, 5th edition, published by Wolters Kluwer.
- Spent the fall 2025 semester as a visiting scholar at Yonsei University, South Korea, participating in an international research collaboration with their Department of Occupational Therapy. Successfully completed data collection, alongside collaborators at Yonsei University, to assess the feasibility of implementing home-based therapy, a new reimbursed service for the national Korean healthcare system.
- Delivered the Invited Keynote presentation at the 2025 Korean International Symposium on Occupational Therapy (KISOT).
- Co-authored “Support needs of young people caring for their parents with cancer” in Journal of Cancer Survivorship, 2025, 1-11.
- Delivered the Invited Keynote for The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Mitchell Symposium in Occupational Science.
- Advanced her leadership as the National Chair of TODOS (Terapia Ocupacional Para Diversidad, Oportunidad, Y Solidaridad). Selected activities include: representing the Hispanic-Latine OT community on the Nevada OT State Association’s DEIJAB Perspectives Panel, and presenting the Keynote for Mercy University’s 2nd Annual Hispanic Day Celebration.
- Successfully launched the TODOS Inaugural Quarterly Mentorship Program in September 2025, which established mentor-mentee dyads to foster the professional development of Hispanic-Latine Occupational Therapy practitioners.
- Delivered an oral presentation, “How US Occupational Therapy Programs Teach About Play in Their Curricula,” and gave two poster presentations, “Beyond scrolling: Students creating social media content as learning tools,” and “Observing children at play: an occupational therapy program goes to the adventure playground,” at the 2026 World Federation of Occupational Therapy Congress in Bangkok .
- Presented her adventure playground project at NYU’s annual 4th Annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Virtual Symposium
- Received a funding award, from the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, for “Shining Light on Trauma: Treatment of Chronic TBI to Improve Psychological Health using Photobiomodulation in Service Members, Veterans and First Responders.
- Awarded the New York University Excellence in Advising Award, honoring his commitment to student success and mentorship.
