Farewell Lily! CPERL’s 1st UIC E-OTD Graduate
Introduction
Last week, Lily successfully presented her capstone project and graduated from UIC's entry-level occupational therapy doctoral (E-OTD) degree program. Many of her family, friends, colleagues, and CPERL members were in attendance. Her capstone is titled: A Suite of Early Literacy Tools for School-Based Occupational Therapists Contributing to Transdisciplinary Services at Easterseals Academy Chicago. Her project developed a suite of tools and resources to support school-based OTs in embedding early literacy strategies within transdisciplinary classroom teams, improving access and participation for students with diverse learning needs.
At her pinning ceremony, Lily was the recipient of the E-OTD Class of 2026 Emerging Leader Award. This award recognizes a student who has shown dedication and commitment throughout their program of study. Lily was nominated partially due to her work in CPERL, where she was pivotal to nurturing the growth of our undergraduate, graduate, and professional trainees and sustaining meaningful research collaboration with our practice partners in a different state and scientists globally.
Lily Shares: Being part of CPERL positively shaped my experience as an occupational therapy student and path to future practice. The CPERL team has shown me what a dedicated team is capable of achieving. Our candid lab meetings sparked discussions that pushed me to critically reflect on our work and develop the confidence to share my ideas. Through Mary and Vivian’s mentorship, I’ve grown in numerous ways and learned that it takes commitment to quality and curiosity to advance our work and create meaningful products. My experience in lab has helped me develop new habits and approaches that I know will positively impact my future career in occupational therapy. I am forever grateful to Mary, Vivian, and the whole CPERL team!
Mary Shares: It has been a real honor to be part of Lily’s path to becoming a pediatric occupational therapist. She was consistently thoughtful, generous, and kind in her scholarly contributions to advancing our lab’s research and knowledge translation agenda, and she had a gentle way of nurturing those around her along the way (myself included) in both word and deed. We especially thank her for allowing us to pilot the research engaged degree path … as it was deeply inspiring for me to enjoy a new part of the mentorship continuum with Vivian at the helm from start to finish … skillfully mentoring Lily to acquire and strengthen habits of excellence that are key to establishing and sustaining a rewarding scholarly career.
Congratulations, Dr. Patton! You are going to be an outstanding OT and have set high water marks for modeling scholarly excellence as CPERL's first UIC E-OTD graduate.