Faculty Bio
Driving and Community Mobility for Older Adults: Occupational Therapy Roles
Susan L. Pierce, OTR/L, CDRS, has more than 25 years of full-time experience in driver rehabilitation services. She developed driver rehabilitation programs in Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida before starting Adaptive Mobility Services, Inc., in 1990. In addition, she has provided yearly formal seminars since 1982 for therapists needing specialized training in driver rehabilitation. She has been involved in the Association of Driver Rehabilitation Specialists (ADED) since 1979; she served as secretary in 1984 and president in 1986-1987 and 1995. She received charter certification as a driver rehabilitation specialist in 1988 and the ADED Scholar Award in 1994. She has been published in many professional journals, magazines, and books related to driving.
AOTA invited Susan to serve on an expert panel related to the association's older driver initiatives. Recently, Adaptive Mobility Services in collaboration with AOTA presented an Occupational Therapy Symposium on Community Mobility and Driving and a Pre-Symposium Workshop on Becoming an Occupational Deriver Rehabilitation Specialist. She currently serves on the AOTA Driver Rehabilitation and Community Mobility Specialty Certification Panel.
Linda A. Hunt, PhD, OTR/L, is director of training for Health and Education Opportunity at Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, Montana. She has presented papers nationally and internationally at professional meetings on research with respect to driving and dementia as well as rehabilitation of older drivers. In addition, she has published numerous book chapters and papers in professional journals on aging and driving. She also is the author of the recent AOTA Online Course Driving and Community Mobility for Older Adults: Occupational Therapy Roles.
As a clinician, Linda has developed driving rehabilitation programs and worked with older drivers and their families, state licensing agencies, and other health care providers on community mobility issues. She also has served on a review committee for the American Medical Association to provide feedback on a guide for physicians that focuses on assessing their older patients' medical fitness to drive. AOTA invited Linda to serve on an expert panel related to the association's older diver initiative. In addition, she currently serves on the AOTA Driver Rehabilitation and Community Mobility Specialty Certification Panel.