President-Elect - Florence Clark
The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.
Florence Clark, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, is vice president of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). Dr. Clark currently is the associate dean, chair, and professor in the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California (USC).
A widely published and noted scholar, her research interests include the development and dysfunction of sensory integration in children, maternal role behavior, the acquisition of independent living skills among adolescents with disabilities, health promotion in the elderly, and spinal cord injury and occupational science.
Dr. Clark is best known for her publication of the Well Elderly Study. Conducted by USC from 1994 through 1996, the study made a number of notable contributions to the research on occupational therapy and its effect on the aging population. The largest outcomes research study conducted in the field to date, the results were published in October 1997—the first occupational therapy study to appear in JAMA.
Appointed as a charter member of the Academy of Research of the American Occupational Therapy Association, Dr. Clark has served as special consultant to the U.S. Army Surgeon General and on the board of the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research. She also was the recipient of an Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship, AOTA’s highest academic honor. In 1999, AOTA also honored her with its Award of Merit. Dr. Clark received a lifetime achievement award from the Occupational Therapy Association of California in 2001.