Board, Auditors and Office

ENOTHE Board

Dr. Caroline Fischl

Role: President

What is the main achievement of your career in OT? Two main achievements so far: (1) Contributing to the knowledge on how to support older adults to engage in daily activities that involve the use of digital technology; and (2) Contributing to the education and professional development of occupational therapists for more than a decade.

What I have to offer to ENOTHE? Commitment to serve and fresh ideas inspired by multiprofessional and multicultural collaborations, pedagogical interests, and experiences as an occupational therapist, educator, international contact person, program manager, and researcher.

What are your dreams concerning the future of ENOTHE? I would like ENOTHE to be a reliable resource and hub for occupational therapy educators in Europe where they could share and test their ideas on pedagogics and content in occupational therapy education in all three education cycles. I would also like to see ENOTHE as a leading network for establishing collaborations and building partnerships to address current and emerging issues relating to occupational therapy and sustainable health and welfare through education.

Roles/Duties for the year 2022/23: Strategic Aim 1: Education – Developing Curricula: ENOTHE Magazine, Promoting Internasionalisation: ENOTHE Board contact person for 1st OT-Europe Congress, Clarifying OT competence: TUNING, ECOLE: Competence Development of Teacher – Webinars; Strategic Aim 2: Partnerships – Internal: Think Tank, TUNING Task Force, External: OTEurope

know more about Caroline at ENOTHE

Giedre Sasnauskienė

Role: Vice-President

What is the main achievement of your career in OT? Some main achievements in recent years: 1) Becoming a president of Lithuanian Occupational therapists association at the support of most of the OT members, 2) Taking a role of ENOTHE board. Also creating sensory integration curriculum in childhood trauma care field. I believe it is important to have OTs in different fields, because occupational therapy has a power to see a person from varies angles and see the need behind the behaviour.

What I have to offer to ENOTHE? Lots of ideas and inspirations from different practical and educational fields of Occupational therapy in Lithuania. Also experiences as an occupational therapist, lecturer and more then 5 years being as a board member of Lithuanian Occupational therapy association. I have skills in organising events, working in different professional, multidisciplinary, educational and research teams. Moreover, I am willing to share my knowledge in childhood trauma, relational trauma, sensory integration and attachment fields.

What are your dreams concerning the future of ENOTHE? To support and make ENOTHE a place where knowledge can inspire all members and OT education communities internationally. Creating a space for OT educators in Europe to share their knowledge and experience. Also to have a secure base where everyone could be seen, heard and understood.

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Katrin Pechstädt

Role: Secretary

What is the most important achievement of your career in occupational therapy? It is very important to me that in the context of the healthcare service, occupational therapy is perceived as a profession that can make an important contribution to people’s health – holistically. To be able to do this, occupational therapy has to reflect the current spirit of the times already in higher education. Higher education should create a safe environment for the development of (self-)critical thinking and a basis for high-quality occupational therapy. The co-development of a documentation tool for occupational therapy therefore represents a special cornerstone in my career because it combines these two important aspects to teach occupational therapy skills to students and enhance occupational therapy skills on a lifelong learning basis.

What do I have to offer ENOTHE? Working as an international coordinator and having a research focus on inclusion, I am very aware of the different cultures and life situations in different countries. The ability to first listen to everyone involved and then support them in a way that is sustainable and appropriate for the people involved is my greatest strength and something I would like to bring to the table. In both teaching and research, I am always interested in working at eye level and creating synergies. I believe that this type of collaboration creates good starting points for working towards ENOTHE’s strategic goals and I am therefore very much looking forward to the challenges ahead.

What are your dreams for the future of ENOTHE? For me, ENOTHE is already making an important contribution to bringing together a wide range of OTs. This networking is the basis for the development of joint projects in teaching, long-term partnerships between universities and provides a sustainable basis for a critical discussion of OT as a profession and its teaching. I appreciate this open atmosphere, which creates a lot of space for reflection and interaction in which we can expand and jointly develop solutions for the future of occupational therapy.

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Dr. Maria Kapanadze

Role: Vice-Secretary

What is the main achievement of your career in OT? My task as a Research Professor at the University School of Nursing and Occupational Therapy of Terrassa (Autonomous University of Barcelona) enables me to strive to provide better OT education through coordination tasks, innovative teaching and research. I graduated as BSc OT from Ilia State University’s (ILIAUNI) European Project, pushed by ENOTHE. This education permitted me to contribute to the project development and establishment of OT role in Georgia. My professional experience in Spain includes the creation of projects in social settings with vulnerable populations. I received PhD from the University of Girona, with an international mention from the University of British Columbia. My research interest belongs to social determinants of health, mental health workplace policies, ethical aspects of occupation, moral identity work, and recovery-oriented practices.

What I have to offer to ENOTHE? My passion and enthusiasm for generating innovative projects, research and teaching. The strategic thinking through action and strong teamwork are my management aspirations. I’ve used to collaborate with OT-circles worldwide, especially Eastern and South Europe, and Canada, and other professionals. I can offer networking as a skill, having fluency at least of 5 languages.

What are your dreams concerning the future of ENOTHE? I share the values of the cross-border strategy design, that foster interprofessional, intercultural, and international research, education and praxis. I see sustainable educational actions with social impact, participatory action approaches, and knowledge transference as the vision and tools. The inter-ACTION of the students of different levels and with diverse abilities in the digital era of networking is our future. I believe the strategic partnerships are necessary to re-invent ourselves in front of the 4th Industrial revolution among other needs of contemporary reality.

Roles/Duties for the year 2022/23: Strategic Aim 1: Education – Developing Curricula: Consultancy, Clarifying OT competence: TUNING; Strategic Aim 2: Partnerships – Internal: TUNING Task Force, External: OTEurope; Strategic Aim 3: Governance/Administration.

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Jasu Forss

Role: Treasurer

What is the main achievement of your career in OT? I have been lucky to work in different roles and also in different contexts. Now very happy in this senior lecturer and head of programme position in our university. But there is lot of highlights achievements together with clients when reaching their individual meaningful goals.

What I have to offer to ENOTHE? I have strong background working in various roles in association so I know this volunteer based working quite well. I also have worked as an OT over 20 years and have wide view what kind of skills are need in OT field now and in the future.

What are your dreams concerning the future of ENOTHE? More active and visible discussions in many levels about future of our profession and how education is one main key to find all emerging roles and areas. ENOTHE is regognized as a important international partner for education organizations. With more members we can have stronger voice for OT and for educational aspects in this rapidly changing world.

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Dr. Lisette Farias Vera

Role: Vice-Treasurer

What is the main achievement of your career in OT? Being promoted as Assistant Professor at the Division of Occupational Therapy (OT), at Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), taking on the role of ENOTHE board member, and being a member of the internationalisation group at my division. These roles involve strengthening OT education, leading pedagogical innovations and transformation of the OT curriculum to respond to global challenges, and fostering discussions regarding diversity, collaboration, and intercultural awareness.

What I have to offer to ENOTHE? My experience of studying and working with diverse occupational therapists and programs in North and South America, and Europe. In addition, I have collaborated in diverse international projects which have provided me with opportunities to gain experience in innovative methods, as well as build partnerships with practitioners, organizations, and researchers. Building on this work, I hope to contribute with my skills and what I have learned abroad to support students and peers in their educational development and projects.

What are your dreams concerning the future of ENOTHE? To support ENOTHE development as a platform that enables collaborative work and knowledge exchange between their members and beyond to enhance OT education. I would also like to see ENOTHE as supporting OT Europe to respond to future professional and societal challenges.

Roles/Duties for the year 2022/23: Strategic Aim 1: Education – Promoting Internationalisation: ENOTHE Board member contact person for 2023 AM and for 2022 Awarded Seed-Funded Project.

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Angela Lumpert Palacios

Role: Student Board member

What is the main achievement of your career in OT? Throughout my still ongoing journey to become an occupational therapist I have had the pleasure of being involved in the organisation of the International Occupational Therapy Students Congress or Congreso Internacional de Estudiantes de Terapia Ocupacional (CIETO) since year one of my Occupational Therapy Bachelor’s program, becoming a board member of said congress’ organising team by year two. On the internationalisation side of this journey, I was able to take on the opportunity to join the SPOTeurope’s board as Social Media Lead, and followed by that, I have now joined the ENOTHE board as Student Board Member. I also had the opportunity to participate in the 27th ENOTHE Annual Meeting by presenting, along Occupational Therapy (OT) professionals, the workshop with the title “Sharing experiences in organizing an ENOTHE Student Summer School responsive to society”, as well as presenting the SPOT pitch.

What do I have to offer to ENOTHE? My proactiveness in the field of student representation, participation and networking in the context of OT higher education at an international level, influenced by my cultural background from Spain and the United States (US); as well as the knowledge I was able to absorb from my previous role in SPOTeurope as Social Media Lead and my role in CIETO’s board as the designated person to establish sponsorships.

What are your dreams concerning the future of ENOTHE? Serving as a student representative within the ENOTHE board to me comes with the goal to feasibly contribute both to the professional’s perspective and career guidance of OT students and new grads by contributing to projects or partaking in partnerships with organisations such as OT Europe, and of course further cultivating the partnership between SPOTeurope and ENOTHE. In the line of internationalisation, a dream that we are slowly working to achieve is to host and participate in international events where we students can participate in the networking and support each other in our journeys to become OT professionals in an interconnected world.

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ENOTHE Auditors

(non-board role)

Saskia Buschner

Annette Köppenborg

ENOTHE Office

(non-board role)

Marta Figueiredo

(Prof.Doc.OT)

Role: ENOTHE Coordinator (including Finance Administration)