Faculty appointment

by Michele Berhorst  •  July 1, 2020

Effective July 1, The Program in Occupational Therapy appointed Carla Walker, OTD, OTR/L, ATP, to Instructor in Occupational Therapy and Medicine.

Dr. Walker earned her master’s degree in occupational therapy from Washington University in St. Louis in 2000. She worked as an occupational therapist in community-based settings and served as the director of assistive technology through Paraquad Inc. In that role, she directed the AT Reuse and Repair program, a model demonstration center funded through the Department of Education, and managed the Health and Wellness Program funded through the Missouri Foundation for Health. After working with parents with disabilities in the Family Participation Program, she returned to Washington University in 2011 to pursue an OTD with a focus on parenting and disability. She received a grant from the Community-University Health Research Partnership (CUHRP) to assess the needs of local parents with disabilities and subsequently established parenting clinical services and a student clinical track upon graduation in 2014. In 2015, she was funded by the Paralyzed Veterans of America to pilot a parenting self-management program for parents with spinal cord injury/disease (SCI/D). In 2018, Dr. Walker launched the Community Collaborative Clinic student experiential learning clinic located in the Paraquad Health and Wellness Center to serve persons with SCI/D.