President of ENOTHE
Maria Kapanadze
(PhD)
President of ENOTHE
(1st term: Oct 2018 – Oct 2022; 2nd term: Oct 2022 – Oct 2024)
Affiliation: University School of Nursing and Occupational Therapy of Terrassa (Autonomous University of Barcelona), Spain
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
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.