Speakers

Dr Louis-Pierre Auger
Postdoctoral Fellow
McGill University (Canada)

Dr Louis-Pierre Auger is an occupational therapist with more than five years of experience in stroke rehabilitation. His research interests are oriented towards sexuality, rehabilitation and knowledge translation. He dedicated his research masters and doctoral studies at l'Université de Montréal (Canada) to improving knowledge and rehabilitation services related to sexuality for people who sustained a stroke. As a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University, Dr Auger continues his work to improve the provision of sexuality rehabilitation services for people post-stroke and plans to work with Canadian occupational therapy programs to improve the sexuality education offered to students.

Dr Heather Baglee
Course Director for Occupational Therapy
Leeds Beckett University (UK)

Dr Heather Baglee has been in academia for 21 years and is Course Director for Occupational Therapy at Leeds Beckett University. Dr Baglee's doctoral research focused on feminist methodology to explore leadership development for occupational therapy students. Dr Baglee has completed presentations in recent years to discuss the place of feminism in occupational therapy. Dr Baglee continues to consider the impact of a predominantly female profession.

Prof Dr Ted Brown
Professor
Undergraduate BOccTher(Hons) Course Director
Monash University (Australia) 

Prof Dr Ted Brown completed his undergraduate occupational therapy education in Canada in 1986 and his doctoral education in occupational therapy at the University of Queensland (Australia) in 2003. He worked as an occupational therapy clinician for 16 years in Canada and Australia primarily in the area of paediatrics. In 2005, he then moved into the higher education sector taking up an academic position in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Monash University – Peninsula Campus in Australia. Prof Dr Brown has published three edited books, 30 book chapters and over 390 journal manuscripts. He has supervised 65 honours, 25 masters, and 15 doctoral students to completion. He was made an inaugural Fellow of the Occupational Therapy Australia Research Academy in 2017 and was inducted into the American Occupational Therapy Association Roster of Fellows in 2019. Prof Dr Brown has served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy for 11 years (2010-2021) and the Australian Occupational Therapy Journal for 16 years (2005-2021).

Rod Charlie Delos Reyes
Lecturer
University of Batangas (Philippines)
PhD student
University of the Philippines Manila Center for Gender and Women Studies (Philippines)

Rod Charlie Delos Reyes is a licensed occupational therapist with a diverse professional background, including pediatrics, mental health, community development, academia, and research. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in OT from the University of Santo Tomas (Philippines) and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of the Philippines Manila, focusing on occupational justice in the LGBT community within the Philippine healthcare. As a committed member of the Philippine Academy of Occupational Therapists (PAOT), he has held leadership positions, including Board Secretary for two consecutive terms and Board Treasurer. He has played a key role in establishing PAOT chapters, conducted the 2017 significant survey on occupational therapy trends in the Philippines, fostered international partnerships for the organization, and contributed to the establishment of the OT Mental Health SIG. His dedication and contributions have earned him recognition, including the Inga-Britt Lindström Grant Award in 2020 from the Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists and grants from WFOT Congress in Paris and OT Frontiers UK. Currently, he serves as an executive director of a non-profit organization, lectures at two Philippine universities, and works as a clinician and internship coordinator in Batangas province, demonstrating his commitment to advancing occupational therapy and promoting occupational justice across various contexts.

Lily Marlene J. Hernandez-Bohn
President
University of Batangas (Philippines)

Lily Marlene J. Hernandez-Bohn, the first-ever female president in the University of Batangas’ 78 years of existence, marks a new milestone in University of Batangas history. She was formerly the Vice Chairman of the Board of Regents, Treasurer, and Executive Vice President.

Prof Dr Jeanne Jackson
Professor Emerita
University College Cork (Ireland)

Prof Dr Jeanne Jackson is professor emerita in the Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Department at University College Cork. Previously, she was associate professor at the University of Southern California (USA). Her primary interests are in understanding how diverse groups of people who may not fit within particular social-historical constraints of their community (i.e. people who are disabled, deprived, LGBTQIA+, older, or poor etc.) struggle to live out their personal vision of a meaningful life through what they do. Prof Dr Jackson has an extensive national and international grant, publication and presentation record. Throughout her clinical, academic and research career her mission has been to collaborate with international communities and develop ideas about occupations and their relationship to development, health, wellness and the dignity of all people.

Niall Kirrane
Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist
National Gender Service (Ireland)

Niall Kirrane works as a Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist in Ireland’s National Gender Service, where he has established a new Occupational Therapy service, which is the first of its kind in Ireland. He has worked across a variety of mental health / psychosocial settings throughout his career, and also holds a M.Sc. in Gender Studies from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). He is the current chairperson of the Gender & Sexuality in Occupational Therapy Advisory Group, with the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland (AOTI).

Dr Jaime Daniel Leite Junior
Lecturer
Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil)

Dr Jaime Daniel Leite Junior is an occupational therapist with a bachelor's degree (2016) from the Federal University of São Carlos. PhD in Occupational Therapy (2024) from the same institution (PPGTO/UFSCar). Has a specialization in Mental Health (2018) from the School of Medical Sciences of the University of Campinas (FCM-UNICAMP; Brazil). Was a Visiting Research Student at the University of Western Ontario (Canada, 2022-2023). Cofounder of the Group Quefazer: Studies and discussions in Social Occupational Therapy; Group Dona Ivone Lara: Occupational Therapy and Black People; and SexGen-OTOS: International Network on Sexualities and Genders within Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science. Member of the Metuia Network - Social Occupational Therapy. Works mainly on the following themes: Dissidence of Genders and Sexualities, Social Occupational Therapy, Global Dialogues and Alliances between occupational therapy and occupational science, Undergraduate/Bachelor Education, Professional Practice, Mental Health, Public Health, Ethnicity, Race and Culture.

Dr Karen McCarthy
Associate Professor
Dominican University of California (USA)

Dr Karen McCarthy's occupational therapy career includes experience working in Lifestyle Redesign®, community mental health, pain management, addiction recovery, dating coaching, and college student wellness programs. Her academic career includes lecturing in Mental Health Occupational Therapy at University College Cork (Ireland) and Dominican University of California. Her focus on sexuality and gender in occupational therapy practice has spanned across all of her practice areas.

Prof Dr Jens Schneider
Professor
Head of the Occupational Therapy study program
Trier University of Applied Sciences (Germany)

Prof Dr Jens Schneider has been a Professor of Applied Therapeutic Sciences with a focus on Occupational Therapy since March 2023 and is also head of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Occupational Therapy. Prof Dr Schneider first completed training as a state-certified occupational therapist at the vocational school for Occupational Therapy in Birkenfeld (Germany). He then studied in the German-language Bachelor’s programme in Occupational Therapy at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands) and went on to complete the European Master’s programme in Occupational Therapy. Prof Dr Schneider earned his PhD in Occupational Therapy with his dissertation on “Narratives on meaningful occupations of transmen during their gender transition process” at the Doctoral College of the School of Sport and Health Sciences and the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender at the University of Brighton (UK). He has worked as an occupational therapist in fields such as paediatrics, neurology, psychiatry, and geriatrics in occupational therapy practices, acute care hospitals, and as an independent practitioner. Since 2011, he has been teaching in vocational schools and degree programmes for occupational therapy and health sciences at both Bachelor’s and Master’s levels in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. Prof Dr Schneider’s research focuses on lifeworld-oriented, occupation-based and context-based occupational therapy, on the development of occupational therapy services for LGBTQIA+ individuals, especially for trans individuals, and e-health. He also pursues the advancement of theoretical foundations of occupational therapy and occupational science, including the application of John Dewey’s pragmatism and transactional perspectives on occupation.

Prof Dr Dorit Schumann
President
Trier University of Applied Sciences (Germany)

Prof Dr Dorit Schumann studied business administration and was awarded her doctorate by the Department of Economics at Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany). During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting scholar at Rutgers State University (USA). Prof Dr Schumann was employed as a management consultant at Schüllermann & Partner Wirtschaftsprüfungs- und Steuerberatungsgesellschaft. From 2004 to 2020, she was a Professor of Logistics in the Department of Economics at Fulda University of Applied Sciences (Germany). During this period, she also served as the Dean of Studies, Vice President for Research, and additionally, as a Professor at the School of Management and Logistic Sciences at the German Jordanian University (Jordan). Moreover, she was the Head of the Research Network Hochschule Fulda at the House of Logistics and Mobility (HOLM) and a member of the Research Network Social Law and Social Policy, as well as the Cooperative Research Training Group "Social Human Rights" of the University of Kassel (Germany) and Fulda University of Applied Sciences. Prof Dr Schumann also served as Vice President for International Affairs at the German Jordanian University in Amman. Since 2019, she has been the President of Trier University of Applied Sciences. In December 2020, she was appointed Vice President of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK).

Dr Michael Sy
Senior Researcher
Zurich University of Applied Sciences (Switzerland)

Dr Michael Sy is an occupational therapist (Philippines), an occupational scientist, and a health professions educator. His research expertise range from occupational therapy in mental and community health, occupational justice, health social sciences, and to interprofessional education and practice. Dr Sy is devoted to ensure that occupational therapy scholarship impacts communities internationally. Specifically, at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), he is actively working on research topics surrounding return to work of people who have post COVID condition using an occupational perspective, and on topics related to how the occupational justice concept (participation of all people in varied occupations) can be applied in practice and consumed by the public. Dr Sy also teach at the BSc and MSc levels on both occupational therapy and interprofessional education modules. On top of that, he do MSc thesis supervision for the European Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program. Dr Sy is also currently working on his first book entitled "Occupational therapy in the Philippines: Theory, practice, and stories" to be published by Routledge in early 2025.

Elvin Williams
Lecturer
Queen Margaret University (UK)

Elvin Williams hails from South Africa and is currently a lecturer at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. His clinical expertise lies in infant, child, and adolescent mental health, with a particular focus on ethnically minoritized infants born with differences of sex development (DSD) and minoritized adolescents identifying as queer. Elvin Williams' clinical work in these areas focuses on supporting the developmental trajectories and secure attachment relationships of infants with DSD by working closely with the infant-care provider dyad. For queer adolescents, his work involves collaborating with youth, families, and schools to facilitate the navigation of complex occupational transitions, addressing the varied social and emotional challenges faced by queer youth. Elvin Williams' research is deeply influenced by his personal narrative as a queer occupational therapist of colour engaged in occupational therapy practice and research. His research focusses on the relationship between the occupational human, the socio-political factors impacting engagement, occupational identity (ies) and resilience. His research has involved exploring the occupation of sex work, the transition of university students who identity as LGBTQIA+ and the preparedness of allied health professionals to work with sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. He is currently pursuing a PhD through a critical participatory action research (CPAR) inquiry that aims to explore the intersectional experiences of Black older gay men with cancer and their journeys in accessing palliative care services.

Dr Andrea Yupanqui-Concha
Associate Professor
University of Magallanes (Chile)
Researcher
Millennium Nucleus Studies on Disability and Citizenship (DISCA) (Chile)

Dr Andrea Yupanqui-Concha has a PhD in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies from the Universitat de Les Illes Balears (Spain). She also holds a Master's in Education from the University of Magallanes and is an Occupational Therapist with a Bachelor's in Occupational Science from the University of Chile (Chile). The University of the Balearic Islands (Spain) awarded the Extraordinary Doctorate Prize in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies for the period 2018-2021 to the year 2023, for her thesis on forced sterilizations in women with disabilities. Dr Yupanqui-Concha currently oversees a research project on access to sexual and reproductive health for women with disabilities, which is funded by the Research Directorate of the University of Magallanes. She has published articles in JCR and Scopus, as well as book chapters with publishers like Elsevier and Taylor Francis.

Dr Laetitia Zeeman
Researcher
University of Brighton (UK)

Dr Laetitia Zeeman is based at the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender (CTSG) at the University of Brighton. Her research aims to address the health and healthcare inequalities of LGBTQ+ people to facilitate greater health equity. She has led and managed local and national collaborative research in health inequalities and LGBTQ+ lives. Her research and related publications include papers, research reports, systematic reviews on LGBTQ+ health equity, Intersex health, LGBTQ+ health and healthcare inequalities, and Queer health. She has recently acted as a consultant to the Council of Europe on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) and serves as the Research Lead for Mental Health Nurse Academics UK (MHNAUK).

Rod Charlie Delos Reyes
Lecturer
University of Batangas (Philippines)
PhD student
University of the Philippines Manila Center for Gender and Women Studies (Philippines)

Rod Charlie Delos Reyes is a licensed occupational therapist with a diverse professional background, including pediatrics, mental health, community development, academia, and research. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in OT from the University of Santo Tomas (Philippines) and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of the Philippines Manila, focusing on occupational justice in the LGBT community within the Philippine healthcare. As a committed member of the Philippine Academy of Occupational Therapists (PAOT), he has held leadership positions, including Board Secretary for two consecutive terms and Board Treasurer. He has played a key role in establishing PAOT chapters, conducted the 2017 significant survey on occupational therapy trends in the Philippines, fostered international partnerships for the organization, and contributed to the establishment of the OT Mental Health SIG. His dedication and contributions have earned him recognition, including the Inga-Britt Lindström Grant Award in 2020 from the Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists and grants from WFOT Congress in Paris and OT Frontiers UK. Currently, he serves as an executive director of a non-profit organization, lectures at two Philippine universities, and works as a clinician and internship coordinator in Batangas province, demonstrating his commitment to advancing occupational therapy and promoting occupational justice across various contexts.

Raheleh Ghasseminia
Associate Professor
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA)
PhD student
University of North Carolina Greensboro (USA)

Raheleh Ghasseminia graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a masters in occupational therapy in 2006. She worked in rehabilitation practice settings until 2015 when she began her academic career. She is currently an associate professor in the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her specialty areas of practice include occupation-centered rehabilitation with adults living with neurological conditions, sexual occupations, toileting functions, and complex rehabilitation technology. After transitioning to a full-time academic position in 2015, Raheleh Ghasseminia began an innovative community-based and occupation-centered rehabilitation practice where she is privileged to continue working with adults with spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and other chronic and progressive neurologic conditions while facilitating teaching, learning, and translation between the classroom and practice with occupational therapy students through this practice. She is also a PhD student in Public Health and Community Health Education at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Her dissertation work centers around disparities in sexual health education practices for underserved populations with disabilities and will employ institutional ethnography methodology. Raheleh Ghasseminia was the recipient of the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professional's first Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Committee Award for her work in the critical examination of rehabilitation health education practices. Raheleh Ghasseminia is committed to integrating critical equity and inclusion frameworks and occupation-centered practice across her occupational therapy practice, teaching, and research. 

Prof Débora/Luna Grandón Valenzuela
Professor
Universidad Austral de Chile (Chile)
PhD candidate
Universidad de Chile (Chile)

Prof Débora/Luna Grandón Valenzuela is a feminist Chilean Occupational Therapist, dedicated to research and university teaching. She is currently teaching at Universidad Austral de Chile, focusing on communitary and gender approaches of occupational therapy. Her research has developed around feminist economics and feminization of care, human rights and sexuality, and critical approaches of occupational therapy. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the construction and representation of the female body in 19th century Latin American magazines. She has been involved in university extension projects of promotion of sexual education, focused on diversity and pleasure. She is also part of an autonomous project of archive and memory of latin american artistic expressions of queer/feminist political and performance art called Registro Contracultural.

Dr Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki
Lecturer
Director of the Centre for Intimate Sexual Citizenship
University of Essex (UK)

Dr Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki is a lecturer in the department of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Intimate Sexual Citizenship at the University of Essex (UK). She has previously taught on gender studies programs at the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Graduate Gender Studies Program, Utrecht University (Netherlands). Her research interests are in critical race, gender, class, sexuality, creative activism, public health as well as decolonial thought and praxis. She has published numerous chapters and journal articles within these interests. She is currently working on an edited volume as editor (with Ghorashi Halleh, Fiorito Tara, and Ponzoni Elena) entitled "Transformative engaged scholarship: Towards a co-creative, caring and reflexive migration studies" with Springer due 2025. She is also guest editing a special issue for Sexualities on Black queer desires: Critical interventions. She is book review editor of the journal Sexualities: Studies in Culture and Society (Sage).

Dr Ryan Lavalley
Assistant Professor
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA)

Dr Ryan Lavalley is an assistant professor in the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and primary lead for the Department of Health Science Community Practice Lab. His research and practice focus on the application of occupational science and occupation-based approaches to organizational, community, and social change, particularly in response to structural oppressions and inequities such as racism, ageism, and queerphobia. Mobilizing a lens of everyday doing, his team focuses on building coalitions across organizations, developing community-level programs, and consultation on leadership and strategic planning particularly in the realms of housing, community development, and age-friendliness. Dr Lavalley also co-hosts an occupational science podcast with Dr Khalilah Johnson. He originally hails from West Virginia (USA), is proudly queer, and is unapologetically political in his practice of occupational science and therapy.

Dr Jaime Daniel Leite Junior
Lecturer
Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil)

Dr Jaime Daniel Leite Junior is an occupational therapist with a bachelor's degree (2016) from the Federal University of São Carlos. PhD in Occupational Therapy (2024) from the same institution (PPGTO/UFSCar). Has a specialization in Mental Health (2018) from the School of Medical Sciences of the University of Campinas (FCM-UNICAMP; Brazil). Was a Visiting Research Student at the University of Western Ontario (Canada, 2022-2023). Cofounder of the Group Quefazer: Studies and discussions in Social Occupational Therapy; Group Dona Ivone Lara: Occupational Therapy and Black People; and SexGen-OTOS: International Network on Sexualities and Genders within Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science. Member of the Metuia Network - Social Occupational Therapy. Works mainly on the following themes: Dissidence of Genders and Sexualities, Social Occupational Therapy, Global Dialogues and Alliances between occupational therapy and occupational science, Undergraduate/Bachelor Education, Professional Practice, Mental Health, Public Health, Ethnicity, Race and Culture.

Dr Rodolfo Morrison
Research Professor
University of Las Americas (Chile)
University of Chile (Chile)

Dr Rodolfo Morrison is a Research Professor at the University of Las Americas and the University of Chile. He is a Doctor in Logic and Philosophy of Science from the University of Salamanca (Spain) and has an Occupational Science and Occupational Therapist degree from the Austral University of Chile (Chile). His research lines have focused on analyzing the history and epistemological currents in Occupational Therapy and Occupation Science from feminist perspectives. In addition, he focused on studying classical pragmatism at the beginning of the profession. Other areas of interest for him are feminist studies of science, studies on sexual diversity, gender, and sexuality, and the uses of body techniques and meditation as therapeutic intervention tools.

Dr Allison Mula
PhD candidate
University College Cork (Ireland)
Queen Margaret University (UK)

Dr Allison Mula is currently a PhD candidate in Occupational Science. Her research, as part of the MSCA-funded P4Play program, investigates play as a dynamic process of self-creation for children. Framed through Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy, her work critically engages with the nuanced ways in which gender discourses influence the creative generativity and imaginative freedom of children through play occupations. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Allison obtained her education in the United States, where she earned a BSc in Occupational Science and an MSc in Occupational Therapy, with a minor in African-American Studies, from University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York (USA). She obtained a Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree from Boston University, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). Dr Mula envisions future explorations that further interrogate the intersections of identity and colonial ideologies, aiming to deconstruct and reimagine how these forces shape the ways in which we conceptualize ourselves. Her work is dedicated to creating spaces in which imaginative and creative potential can flourish, free from the potential constraints of dominant social discourses.

Judith Schares
Student assistant
Trier University of Applied Sciences (Germany)

Judith Schares is a student in the dual bachelor occupational therapy degree programme at Trier University of Applied Sciences, and currently in her final semester. Additionally, she works as a student assistant. Since last year, she gains practical experience as an occupational therapist in an occupational therapy practice for adults and children.

Prof Dr Jens Schneider
Professor
Head of the Occupational Therapy study program
Trier University of Applied Sciences (Germany)

Prof Dr Jens Schneider has been a Professor of Applied Therapeutic Sciences with a focus on Occupational Therapy since March 2023 and is also head of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Occupational Therapy. Prof Dr Schneider first completed training as a state-certified occupational therapist at the vocational school for Occupational Therapy in Birkenfeld (Germany). He then studied in the German-language Bachelor’s programme in Occupational Therapy at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands) and went on to complete the European Master’s programme in Occupational Therapy. Prof Dr Schneider earned his PhD in Occupational Therapy with his dissertation on “Narratives on meaningful occupations of transmen during their gender transition process” at the Doctoral College of the School of Sport and Health Sciences and the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender at the University of Brighton (UK). He has worked as an occupational therapist in fields such as paediatrics, neurology, psychiatry, and geriatrics in occupational therapy practices, acute care hospitals, and as an independent practitioner. Since 2011, he has been teaching in vocational schools and degree programmes for occupational therapy and health sciences at both Bachelor’s and Master’s levels in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. Prof Dr Schneider’s research focuses on lifeworld-oriented, occupation-based and context-based occupational therapy, on the development of occupational therapy services for LGBTQIA+ individuals, especially for trans individuals, and e-health. He also pursues the advancement of theoretical foundations of occupational therapy and occupational science, including the application of John Dewey’s pragmatism and transactional perspectives on occupation.

Dr Sakshi Tickoo
Registered Occupational Therapist
Sex, Love, And OT (India & Australia)

Dr Sakshi Tickoo is a brown, queer occupational therapist and certified counselor qualified from India, specializing in the areas of sexuality, relationships and mental health across lifespan and the author of SexCare. She is the founder of Sex, Love, And OT - an inclusive, educational telehealth platform that focuses on facilitating freedom of occupational engagement for people of all abilities, expressions, and ethnicities globally. She is currently based in Australia, training to be an accredited sexologist with interests in expanding the integration of occupational therapy practice within forensic sexology. In her spare time, she combines her love for technology, art and sexuality through content creation, writing and curating resources on Instagram.

Yael Wyssocky
Head of "Pride and OT" interest group in the ISOT
A board member of ISOT
Israeli Society of Occupational Therapy (ISOT; Israel)

Yael Wyssocky, OT, MSc, pediatric OT, working with children and teenagers with ADHD and other neurodevelopmental disorders in their natural environments. Counselling and mentoring educational staff, OTs and students, Co-Developer of the "Alefim" multi-dimensional preschool program for school readiness, Head of the interest group "Pride and OT" in the Israeli Society of Occupational Therapy (ISOT) and a board member of the society, Supervisor of therapists working with diverse gender children and youth.