20Q: Leadership Reflections From a College Dean

Charlotte Royeen
PhD OTR/L, FAOTA, FASAHP, FNAP

Charlotte Brasic Royeen, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, FASAHP, FNAP, is the Dean of the College of Health Sciences and the Inaugural Chair of the Endowed A. Watson Armour III Presidential Professorship at Rush University Medical Center, which was just recently rated the #1 hospital in the U.S. for quality.  Rush University and Rush University Medical Center are uniquely and fully integrated hospital, educational, and research operations. Dr. Royeen has served as an occupational therapy clinician, occupational therapy and research consultant, federal research analyst with the Office of Special Education within the U.S. Department of Education, and as a faculty member and academic administrator in five different universities with increasing levels of responsibility.  Currently, the College of Health Sciences within Rush University has sixteen departments across three levels of education (bachelors, masters, clinical doctorate, and research doctorate).  She is nationally and internationally recognized in occupational therapy, neuroscience, and physical therapy and has 76 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 25 popular press or web-based publications, over 22 edited or authored books, 27 book chapters, and just recently had four op-ed pieces published in the popular press. Through the years, she has received over 5 million dollars in extramural funding ranging from neuroscience and neuroscience literacy, resolution rehabilitation services, and health equity issues among Native American tribes of northern Nebraska, effects of federal legislation on occupational therapy practice and family quality of life.  She is the recipient of the Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship, the highest academic honor in occupational therapy sponsored by the American Occupational Therapy Association, and the Ruth Zemke Lectureship for the Society for the Study of Occupational Science: USA, the highest academic honor for occupational science. She has served as a Visiting Professor at Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland. She was recognized as one of the top 100 most influential occupational therapists past and present by the American Occupational Therapy Association. She has extensive service in specialty accreditation across occupational therapy, dentistry, and physical therapy, as well as a multitude of allied health fields.  She received a BS in occupational therapy (summa cum laude) from Tufts University, a Graduate Fellowship in Occupational Therapy from Washington University School of Medicine, and a PhD in Educational Research and Evaluation from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, supported, in part, by a Doctoral Fellowship from the American Occupational Therapy Foundation.  In addition to extensive service to the American Occupational Therapy Association, she has served on many boards and is currently a trustee for the Kaiser Permanente School of Allied Health in Oakland, CA. She may be contacted at charlotte_L_royeen@rush.edu