Dear OTD Community,
If you have not heard the news, it was a historic week in occupational therapy. AOTA elected its first Black President! What great news to cap off Black History Month! Arameh Anvarizadeh, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA, will be introduced at AOTA Inspire as the new President-elect. In her position statement, Dr. Anvarizadeh shared her vision for the profession:
"As your President, we will raise AOTA and its members by building an OT community where we can all feel we have a voice in our Association. Through being better together, we will move OT to be a sustainable, reimbursable, and visible profession to the masses. My journey in local, state, and national leadership and my push to increase access has been a labor of love for our profession and a career-long endeavor to make it better for us and those who come after us. I look forward to continuing this historic journey and walking with you to a place we have not been."
As it was a history-making week, we remember how important it is to keep discovering and preserving Black histories in occupational therapy. And all of us can play a role! The recorded interviews with Black leaders I shared in last week's nOTes were collected by students, educators, and practitioners through the Occupational Therapy Leaders and Legacies Society – History Preservation Project (OTLLS). This page contains information about how you can become involved in capturing and preserving Black history.
With a diverse student body and co-presidents of the North Carolina Black Occupational Therapy Collective (Tomeico Faison, PhD, OTR/L, and Bianca Randleman, OTD '25), Duke OTD is in a unique position to document the history and contributions of Black OT’s in North Carolina. Whose story would YOU like to write?