Illustrious Occupational Therapy Graduates from U of T
The Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy has had the privilege of educating many wonderful individuals. The pictures of our graduating classes are proudly hung in the 'graduate corridor' on the 9th floor (please come and see them). Among our graduates have been some of the most illustrious occupational therapists in the history of the profession in Canada.
Helen P. LeVesconte Dip. OT, L.L.D., OT (C)
Helen was a visionary occupational therapist, who is world-renowned. She graduated from the first Diploma Course at the University of Toronto in 1928 and was Professor and Director of Occupational Therapy from 1933 to 1967. Helen was dedicated to the development of occupational therapy and devoted much energy to the improvement and maintenance of occupational therapy standards. She received many awards for her contribution from both within and outside of the University of Toronto. The Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) created the Dr. Helen P. LeVesconte Award of Merit in her honour.
Isobel M. Robinson Dip. OT, BA, L.L.D., OT (C), FCAOT
Isobel graduated from the occupational therapy program at the University of Toronto in 1939. After an exciting practice career , she took on the Directorship of the program and held that position from 1967 to 1981, when she retired and was made a Professor Emerita. She has contributed to the profession as an Associate Editor of CJOT, and serving on the CAOT Board of Directors as both director and officer, and representing Canada on the Council of the WFOT. In 1981, Isobel was appointed the first archivist of CAOT. In 1983, with two occupational therapy colleagues, she founded the Canadian Occupational Therapy Foundation (COTF). Professor Robinson’s work has been recognized with numerous honours and awards including the Muriel Driver Lectureship, which was bestowed on her in 1981. Along with long time colleagues and friends, Thelma Cardwell, Sharon Brintnell and Helen Madill, Professor Robinson authored and produced the video Fifty Years of Occupational Therapy in Canada. Her LLD is from University of Alberta.
Thelma Cardwell Dip OT, L.L.D., OT (C), FCAOT
Thelma was a major leader in the profession of Occupational Therapy, both in Canada and internationally. Graduating with a Diploma in Occupational Therapy from the University of Toronto in 1942, she held several clinical positions before her service as Lieutenant (OT) in the Royal Canadian Army Corps, in the U.K. 1944-45. Her academic career began upon her return to Toronto in 1945 and with one brief absence, she remained at U of T until she took early retirement in 1983. She held the position of Acting Director of Occupational Therapy from 1981-1983. She was the first OT, non-physician , woman to become president of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) in 1966.. She was President of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists from 1967 to 1972, and co-founder, Canadian Occupational Therapy Foundation and its Vice-President from1983 to 1985. Thelma was made a life member of the CAOT and Ontario Society of Occupational Therapists. She was a recipient of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee medal in 1977, and Honorary Fellow, World Federation of Occupational Therapists. She was honoured by the Occupational Therapy Department at the University of Toronto and her many colleagues in the profession through the establishment of the Thelma Cardwell Lecture Series, at the University of Toronto in 1977. Her LLD was given by Dalhousie University.
Barbara J. O’Shea Dip P&OT, MS., OT Reg (C) FCAOT
Barbara is one of Canada’s occupational therapy pioneers. She began her career in 1958 when she received a Diploma in Physical and Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto. Since then she has had an active career as an occupational therapy pioneer in practice, research, education and professional affairs. In 1977, while Assistant Professor, School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s University, she also received the highest honour of the OT profession, the Muriel Driver Memorial Lecturer. In 1982, she went to Dalhousie University, as the Founding Director of the School of Occupational Therapy, where she introduced an innovative curriculum model organized around concepts of occupation. On her retirement from Dalhousie University, she was appointed professor emerita. Professor O’Shea served as President of CAOT from 1977 to 1978. She also acted as the WFOT delegate for Canada. She received a Life Membership in CAOT in honour of her vision, energy, and organizational work on behalf of Canadian occupational therapists and the people who use our services here and world-wide.
E. Sharon Brintnell Dip P & OT, MSc, , BOT, OT Reg (C), FCAOT
Sharon is agraduate from the University of Toronto program in physical and occupational therapy, and is an outstanding member of the faculty at the University of Alberta. She has been President of CAOT, Director of the Occupational Performance Analysis Unit, consultant to the National Institute of Disability Management and Research (NIDMAR) and has qualified in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench as an expert in occupational performance and functional assessments. Professor Brintnell has played a major role in the creation and ongoing development of the Occupational Therapy Guidelines for Client-Centered Practice; chairing the volume on mental health and being a contributing author to Enabling Occupation: An Occupational Therapy Perspective, the next generation of the Guidelines. In 1983, largely through the efforts of Sharon Brintnell, a grant was received through the R.S. McLaughlin Examination and Research Centre in Edmonton to support funding for a national certification examination in Occupational Therapy. Her tremendous contributions were recognized when she was awarded the Muriel Driver Memorial Lecturership in 1985. Since 2000, she has been honorary treasurer of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), where she is playing an active role in occupational therapy development world-wide. Professor Brintnell is particularly interested in the impact of disability and handicap on productivity roles, the application of international community development strategies in community-based Rehabilitation (CBR) and international models of occupational therapy education and service.
Judith Friedland Dip P & OT, BA, MA, Ph.D., OT(C), OT Reg. (Ont.) FCAOT
Judith graduated from the physical and occupational therapy program at the University of Toronto in 1960. She worked briefly in psychiatry following graduation, returning to practice in 1977 to work at COTA. She joined the faculty of the occupational therapy program at the University of Toronto in 1982 and in 1991 she took on the leadership. During the 9- year period that she led the program, the program gained departmental status, the Graduate Program in Rehabilitation Science was established, and the proposal for a Master’s in Occupational Therapy was approved. Professor Friedland’s own research interests have been on the psychosocial aspects of physical disability and chronic illness. More recently she has been focusing on the origins of the profession through her historical research. In her refereed papers and in presentations in Canada and abroad, she has examined the historical and ideological conditions that gave rise to our profession, and described its early development. Professor Friedland has served on many community and professional committees and boards.She is included in the Canadian Who’s Who and the Who’s Who of Canadian Women, has won the Physical and Occupational Therapy Alumni Achievement Award, and in 2003 was the Muriel Driver Lecturer. In 2004 she became Professor Emerita and in that capacity she continues her research into the intellectual history of occupational therapy.
Thelma Sumsion B.Sc. (OT), M.Ed., Ph.D., OT(C ) , FCAOT
Thelma has had a stellar career since she graduated from the occupational therapy program at the University of Toronto. Her major contributions have been in the area of psychiatry and client-centred practice. She was a key player in the creation of the Occupational Therapy Guidelines for Client-Centered Practice and has written text books on the topic, including Client-Centered Practice in Occupational Therapy: A Guide to Implementation (2006). She contributed to advances in academic standards and accreditation of the profession with her Procedure Manual for the Accreditation of Undergraduate Occupational Therapy Programs. She has held many leadership positions in the profession both in the clinical and academic realm, both in Canada and abroad. In 1986, Professor Sumsion became Occupational Therapist-in-Chief at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario. From 1988-1990, she was President of CAOT. She is currently Associate Professor, and Director of the School of Occupational Therapy at the University of Western Ontario. Overseas, she led programs at Brunel University and Barts and the London School of Occupational Therapy. Professor Sumsion was the 1986 Muriel Driver Memorial Lecturer.
Elizabeth Townsend Dip P&OT (C), BSC (OT), M.Ad.Ed., Ph.D, OT(C ) , FCAOT
Elizabeth graduated from the University of Toronto with a Diploma in Physical and Occupational Therapy in 1967 and a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy in 1979. She received a Master’s degree in Adult Education from Saint Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and her Ph.D., from Dalhousie University in 1994. She is a founding member of the School of Occupational Therapy at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and later became Director. In 1993 she was the Muriel Driver Memorial Lecturer. She has been Chairperson of CAOT’s Client-Centered Practice Committee since 1990, has been a key contributor to all the generations of the Occupational Therapy Guidelines for Client-Centered, including Enabling Occupation: An Occupational Therapy Perspective. Most recently she has been co-authoring, with Dr. Helene Polatajko, the sequel to the enabling document for the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. This was a national initiative that captured the latest developments in occupational therapy practice, research and education through national consultation, and is destined to shape occupational therapy practice, not only in Canada, but around the world. Elizabeth is a past Thelma Cardwell Lecturer at U of T.
