Oberle appointed to faculty June 1

On June 1, the Program in Occupational Therapy will appoint Sarah Cheatham Oberle, OTD, OTR/L, to its faculty as an instructor in occupational therapy and pediatrics (PDA). She will teach a variety of courses within the master’s degree and clinical doctoral degree curricula with an emphasis on assessment and intervention for children and youth.

Oberle earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2008 from Wake Forest University and her doctorate in occupational therapy in 2013 from Washington University in St. Louis. Her prior teaching roles include co-instructor of the “Fundamentals of Healthcare and Professional Practice” course, tutor for the Case-Based Learning course, and doctoral student mentor in her Deafness Occupational Therapy Support lab.

She served as an occupational therapist in the Program’s Community Practice from 2014-23. Oberle’s caseload primarily consisted of outpatient pediatric clients both in clinic and home settings, including diagnoses such as Usher syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dysgraphia. She served as a therapist for the Baby Bridge program from 2021-23, supporting recent neonatal intensive care unit graduates in the transition from hospital to home. Oberle also served as an occupational therapist at the Central Institute for the Deaf, where she administered a variety of assessments to students aged 3-12 for strengths and barriers to school participation. She provided direct occupational therapy support to students and consulted with teachers regarding student-specific support strategies in the classroom, including motor, cognitive and sensory supports.

Her research interests include occupational performance factors affecting participation of children who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing, cultural awareness and exploration of d/Deaf cultural richness, underlying neurocognitive skills related to occupational performance and participation struggles for children with ADHD, and cognitive habilitation for all children and adolescents who experience executive functioning struggles. She designed and runs the Train Your Brain program for school-aged children with executive functioning difficulties and aims to expand and share this program to the wider occupational therapy community.