A Pioneer in Occupational Therapy
The AOTA honors Wendy Coster, chair of the department of occupational therapy and rehabilitation counseling.
Wendy Coster (SAR’75), an associate professor and chair of the department of occupational therapy and rehabilitation counseling at Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, will receive the Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship award, the highest honor given by the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) at its annual conference in April.
Given annually to a member of the association who has “creatively contributed to the development of knowledge of the profession through research, education, and/or clinical practice,” the award was established in 1955 as a memorial to Slagle, a pioneer in the field of occupational therapy. Coster will deliver the lecture at the AOTA’s 2008 conference.
“Dr. Coster is an exemplary faculty member and tremendous asset to Boston University Sargent College,” says Gloria Waters, dean of Sargent. “She is truly a gifted teacher, researcher, and administrator. I am thrilled that the AOTA has chosen to celebrate her efforts with this award.”
In addition to her work as an educator and leader at Boston University, Coster helped develop two assessment tools that evaluate functional capabilities and performance in young children, the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) and the School Function Assessment. She has advanced theory and advocated evidence-based practice that promotes the well-being of people with disabilities. “I’m pleased that the assessments we developed really made a difference,” says Coster. “I think they really helped people focus on what children with disabilities could do as opposed to what they couldn’t do.”
Coster earned a master’s degree in occupational therapy at Sargent and a doctorate degree at Harvard. Besides administering programs in the occupational therapy and rehabilitation counseling department, she teaches courses and conducts research on outcome measures for adults receiving rehabilitation services. Her colleagues describe her as a “gifted colleague,” whose “leadership style nurtures the growth of others.”
Brittany Jasnoff can be reached at bjasnoff@bu.edu.