Bridgett Piernik-Yoder, Ph.D., OTR, FAOTA

Director Project ASPIRE, Professor & Chair Department of Occupational Therapy

For Bridgett Piernik-Yoder, Ph.D., there is no greater professional privilege than being an educator in the field of occupational therapy and assisting others to become occupational therapists. Although she and the students have different roles in the process, they are together for a common purpose: to ensure that they become qualified occupational therapists. Therefore, she feels as though it is she responsibility to bring to them the content in a way that they will learn, interpret and apply it in their clinical careers.

In order to support students learning, she feels very strongly that a clear conceptual foundation be articulated for each course and shared with the students. With regard to learning activities, it is important to incorporate a variety of type of learning activities. This not only reinforces learning by engaging the students in different types of activities, but challenges students to learn and apply the content using different approaches.