This year the Puget Sound School of Occupational Therapy celebrates 80 years of excellence in preparing students to meet the occupational needs of clients as they live, learn, work and play. What a legacy! In welcoming our 80th class of students, I reflected on our School’s history: sprouting from a seed planted by a Minnesotan occupational therapist who suggested that Puget Sound “grow [their] own,” the program’s founding in 1944 was a response to a widespread tuberculosis outbreak and the need for increased capacity to care for TB patients in the northwestern United States. Remarkably, it was funding from the state’s TB Association that provided the salary for the founding director. Our first student graduated in 1946. Eighty years later, well over 2000 entry-level and post-professional OTs who studied at Puget Sound have left their mark throughout our state, across the US, and in countries such as Germany, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and other global locales! (See this Arches article for more on our history.)

Harnessing the power of occupation, adaptation, culturally responsive therapeutic relationships, and knowledge of dynamic systems, the impact of our graduates stretches beyond providing excellent care for clients. Puget Sound OT graduates have contributed to the growth of the profession in countless ways: reconceptualizing the evidence framework; creating a video learning library; developing and enacting caregiver trainings; authoring or contributing to widely used textbooks; founding occupational therapy clinics; becoming innovators and leaders in professional practice settings, administration, and policy agencies; investigating traditional and emerging aspects of practice; holding local, state or national occupational therapy leadership positions and more. 

Having come to Puget Sound after earning my entry-level and post-professional degrees at a large research institution, I greatly value the liberal arts foundation of our program. Grounding our students' professional preparation in the intersections of critical inquiry, sociocultural sensitivity, client-centered care, professional reasoning and evidence-informed practice, our graduates not only know OT, they embody excellence in OT. We hear it again and again from our clinical instructors and community partners: “I trust Puget Sound’s program…the students are so well-prepared and ready for the challenges of contemporary practice.”

As we prepare to celebrate our 80th anniversary, I am acutely aware that there is much, much more to our legacy! Please help us to fill in the gaps by sharing your stories, memories and achievements, and help us spread the word about our celebration by reaching out to alumni in your circles. Please save the date and plan to join us during reunion weekend on June 7, 2025, and consider partnering with us to plan our celebration or to serve as a host during the event. 

I look forward to seeing you at our celebration of 80 years of excellence! 

A UPS Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) grant was awarded to faculty members Amy Kashiwa and Maggie Hayes. Amy and Maggie arranged for a group of first-year OT students to practice activity analysis for the Introduction to Assessment course (OT 603). Faculty, staff, and students from the first and second-year cohort attended a Rainier’s Triple-A baseball game on September 6th, and the spirited group made it on the jumbotron “Hug Cam”!  Thanks to the Puget Sound CEI grant, 35 students, faculty, and staff attended. It was a special way to welcome our incoming cohort, and a wonderful time was had by ALL! 

We are thrilled to welcome Jackie Brown as our newest Visiting Assistant Professor to the OT department! Jackie graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a bachelor of science degree in occupational therapy in 2000. She later completed her post-professional clinical doctorate in occupational therapy at the University of Puget Sound in 2019. Jackie enjoys working with clients who have sensory processing disorders, autism, praxis difficulties and more as the owner of an outpatient pediatric therapy clinic in Silverdale, WA. She is teaching in Foundations, Peds, Neuroscience, and Management. In her free time Jackie enjoys traveling with her husband and daughter, exploring new places, bowling, reading, crocheting, geocaching, playing and collecting board games and spending time with friends and family.

Some members of the second year cohort took a weekend backpacking trip near Mt. Rainer!