Recently, members of Allied Travel Careers attended the 2009 AOTA Conference & Expo. The conference, held from April 23-26 in Houston was great success for us. We met a lot occupational therapists and student OTs along with a few current and existing clients. We believe that the future is bright for occupational therapists and we hope that we got some of them interested in occupational therapy travel jobs.

We came loaded with goodies which kept us busy at our booth throughout the conference. One of the attractions at our location was the fact that we were giving away an Acer notebook computer, which is a lot of computer in a very small package. We thought that it would be ideal for an occupational therapist requiring flexibility and mobility in a computing device.

We would like to thank the hundreds of visitors to our booth that entered our contest. But of course, there can only be one winner. And that winner is…

Donna Stressel-Occupational Therapist- Schenectady, NY

Our congratulations go to Donna Stressel, an occupational therapist at the Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady, NY. Donna has been an OT for 23 years and has been employed at Sunnyview for 18 years. She is one of two full-time OTs focused exclusively on driver rehab. Her clients and the conditions she treats are quite varied. She works with licensed drivers undergoing rehabilitation attempting to return to normal life after a stroke, brain injury, spinal cord trauma and other conditions. She also assists first time drivers with conditions such as spina bifida and other disabilities who may require special equipment in order to operate a motor vehicle and do so safely. Donna also works with seniors and assesses ability and makes recommendations that consider age, reflexes and cognitive response. Donna is married and has a 5-year old daughter.

Once again, we congratulate Donna Stressel and we thank all of those who visited us and entered our drawing. We will be back next year to spread the word once again about the benefits and unique opportunities associated with becoming a traveling occupational therapist.