2020 ISSUE 1
2 01 9 I L O TA AWA R D R E C I P I E N T S
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am lucky to be in a profession that I enjoy, and I am
extremely humbled by the acknowledgement!”
Steven Taylor: OT of the Year
The second recipient
of the OT of the Year
Award was Steven
Taylor, who has been
practicing for 12 years.
In the clinical setting
he
has
provided
skilled
interventions
spanning the continu-
um of acute-care to
outpatient OT ser-
vices. He has a pas-
sion for working with
individuals who have
experienced cognitive
impairment, introduc-
ing novel, evidence-
based strategies to facilitate recovery and occupa-
tional function. In 2012, he began teaching in the OT
program at Rush University and officially joined the
faculty as an assistant professor in 2015. He was
instrumental in Rush’s transition from an entry-level
Master’s to an entry-level Doctorate program. As part
of the department’s curriculum committee, he recog-
nized curricular areas that could be enhanced and
spearheaded efforts towards facilitating higher level
thinking and professional reasoning. He has also
been an advocate for OT in the area of interprofes-
sional education (IPE). In 2016, Rush initiated an IPE
course that brings together students from its various
colleges where he has served as a representative for
the College of Health Sciences. This past year he
was a co-director for this interprofessional service-
learning course, now serving 750 healthcare stu-
dents from Rush, Roosevelt University and the Uni-
versity of Chicago. Through this effort he has raised
the visibility of OT for emerging healthcare profes-
sionals. This past year, he has investigated practice
habits for the treatment of individuals with cognitive
impairments, from which preliminary findings were
presented at the 2019 ILOTA conference. He is cur-
rently working on his PhD dissertation, investigating
a service-learning experiential curriculum for OT stu-
dents using telehealth to access marginalized popu-
lations and expanding competencies towards this
novel service delivery medium. In addition to all
these accomplishments he enjoys his service with
NBCOT as an Item writer and as the copy editor for
ILOTA’s Communique. On receiving the award, he
reported, “It is a tremendous honor to be nominated
by my peers and be recognized as someone whose
efforts contribute to our profession through the
ILOTA OT of the Year award! For me, this award is a
testament to the power of mentorship, as I could not
have gotten to this point in my career without truly
empowering mentors. Now I am able to serve as a
mentor, and through interprofessional education, get
to demonstrate the value of OT. This award is truly
significant for me because of the strong roots the
profession has within our state. Our profession was
started in large part through local advocacy efforts.
Today, I feel our professional organization allows us
to have a huge impact on our profession at a state
level. I am tremendously thankful to ILOTA for this
award, and look forward to continued collaborations
with all of the great professionals across our state.”
Nancy Richman: Award of Merit and Lifetime
Achievement Honorary Member
The Award of Merit
honors a member of
ILOTA
who
has
“made history” by
performing
actions
which have: shaped
the course of OT in
the state of Illinois;
made a comprehen-
sive and sustained
contribution to the
growth and develop-
ment of OT in the
state of Illinois; and,
focused public atten-
tion and awareness
of the scope of OT
so that many may be influenced to consider it as a
career and profession. Last year's recipient was
Nancy Richman. She has been working in the
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