Occupational Therapy Association of Colorado

10/08/2026

10/07/2026

OTAC Corporate Member Event:

Free OT Meetup in Denver on Oct. 21!

Our partners at Unyte Health are pleased to host a special evening dedicated to Denver’s sensory and neurodevelopmental OT community! Co-hosted with Tracy Stackhouse’s Developmental FX, this event features a clinical panel discussion with Karen Onderko (Polyvagal Institute), Ana do Valle, OTR, SEP, and DFX’s own Adrianna Spallino, OTR/L.

When: Wednesday, Oct 21, 2026 | 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM MT
Where: Developmental FX (3615 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Denver)
What: Panel discussion, peer networking, light refreshments and free swag
Cost: Free

Connect with local clinicians, explore real-world approaches to regulation and sound therapy, and build your local peer network. Click here to RSVP and save your spot: https://integratedlistening.com/unyte-meetup-denver-2026/

10/06/2026

Beyond the Clinic: Movement-Based Pediatric Occupational Therapy
Zach Klein, OTR/L, NREMT

Zach Klein, MS, OTR/L is the founder of Ready for Action Therapy, a pediatric occupational therapy practice serving the Denver metro area. He specializes in movement-based therapy for children with ADHD, sensory processing differences, anxiety, emotional regulation challenges, executive functioning difficulties, and motor coordination needs. Rather than limiting intervention to a traditional clinic, Zach intentionally uses parks, climbing gyms, pools, playgrounds, and community environments to build confidence and develop meaningful skills where children naturally thrive. His background includes exercise science, adaptive sports, wilderness medicine, climbing instruction, and occupational therapy. Zach is passionate about helping therapists move beyond table-top activities to create engaging, evidence-informed interventions that improve participation, self-regulation, and independence in everyday life.

Title: Beyond the Clinic: Movement-Based Pediatric Occupational Therapy
Overview: Discover how movement can become one of your most effective treatment tools. This webinar explores practical, evidence-informed strategies for using parks, playgrounds, climbing gyms, pools, and other community environments to address sensory processing, emotional regulation, executive functioning, motor coordination, and confidence. Through clinical examples and immediately applicable intervention ideas, participants will learn how to intentionally design movement experiences that are engaging, goal-directed, and occupation-centered.

Date: October 14
Time: 6:30PM

Location: Virtual - webinar link will be sent via email after registration!
Cost:

OTAC Member: Free!
If you're a member of another state association email [email protected] with proof of membership for discount!
Non-Member $10

We’re enhancing OTAC member benefits by offering free continuing education through two monthly webinar series hosted by OTAC and Aspire OT.
See our event calendar for upcoming webinars!

10/05/2026

Hispanic Heritage Month Series: Speaker Event

Our EDJI Committee would like to invite all OTAC members in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month! Please join us in welcoming Deana Muñoz, owner and clinician of New Moon Occupational Therapy, as she presents on creating collective communities.

Date: October 12th
Time: 6:30PM
Presenter: Deana Muñoz, MOT, OTR/L is the daughter of two OTs and a proud 4th generation Mexican American. She graduated from Colorado State University in 2021 and is 5 years into her career as a pediatric OT. For the last two years, she has run a private mobile outpatient practice, New Moon Occupational Therapy, to better serve teens and young adults. Since October 2024 she has been the "embedded OTEEC OT" working at a bilingual daycare center in Fort Collins in partnership with CSU and the Larimer County Impact Fund, making services accessible to a community that is traditionally underserved by Early Intervention services.
Cost: Free event - OTAC members can earn a contact hour!
*If you're a member of another state association, please send proof to [email protected] to receive contact hour!

After registration you will receive an email with the Zoom link & information on how to submit for contact hours.

Register here: https://otacco.org/event-6808961

10/02/2026

From memorable milestones to fun facts, we’ll be sharing pieces of our story that celebrate where we’ve been and how far we’ve come. By reflecting on our past, we celebrate the progress, passion and advocacy that continue to move our profession forward!

A special thanks to our OTAC Historian and past OTAC President, Pam DiPasquale-Lehnerz, for putting together history facts for this series!

Octobers OTAC Fact!

The evolution of OTAC was directed by individuals who improved the administration and management of the organization in the 2000’s

Cindy Mansfield, Rosalie Lewin, Janice Hinds, Brent Berg, Audrey Aquilar, Pamela DiPasquale-Lehnerz, Will ‘Hearn, Linda Crawford, and Meghan Weber.

These individuals contributed to enhancement of the OTAC organization through organizational management, administrative development, website innovation, and the incorporation of trends from the national association. They moved OTAC toward the use of technology, social media and an arrangement for association management.

Click here to see past facts: https://otacco.org/About

09/27/2026

Congratulations to our first 2026 Recognition Award winner Dr Alison Herman!

Dr. Alison Herman has served as the Academic Fieldwork Coordinator at Colorado State University since 2018. Her contributions to the profession have had a marked influence
on fieldwork practice from the perspective of both students and supervisors. She has mentored hundreds of students in three different universities. Through practices gained in inclusive mentoring courses, ongoing interactions with fieldwork educators (FWEs) and her own research examining effective communication between students and FWEs, she provides individualized advising that enables students to achieve learning and practice goals. On the other side of the supervision coin, Dr. Herman has been instrumental in training countless fieldwork educators through contributions to two revisions of AOTA’s Fieldwork Educators Certificate Program (FWECP) manual. She has personally taught FWECP content to more than 200 clinical supervisors through yearly offerings at CSU. Her skill as an educator has resulted in invitations to teach the course in two additional locations. In sum, Dr. Alison Herman ‘s accomplishments reflect powerful skill sets that she leverages to support students, novice academic fieldwork educators and community organizations.

09/27/2026

Congratulations to the 2026 Agatha Jackson award winner, Brenda Smith!

Brenda Smith exemplifies the excellence, dedication, and professional spirit celebrated by the Agatha Jackson COTA Award. Over her 17‑year career as a COTA, she has contributed meaningfully across pediatric, adult, and neurorehabilitation settings, bringing depth, compassion, and clinical expertise to every role she has held. Her work in early intervention, level‑1 trauma care, oncology and blood disorders at Children’s Hospital Colorado, and neurorehabilitation in Northern Colorado reflects a practitioner committed to supporting individuals through some of the most challenging moments of their lives.
Brenda’s impact on the Colorado OT community extends far beyond direct practice. She has served as a fieldwork educator for countless OTA students from both Casper College and Pima Medical Institute, consistently fostering confidence, competence, and professional identity in emerging practitioners. Her ability to guide learners from nervous beginners to capable, entry‑level clinicians demonstrates her exceptional skill as a mentor and educator. Now, as a new instructor at Pima, she brings her clinical breadth, her passion for student development, and her commitment to high‑quality OTA education into the classroom—strengthening the future of the profession in Colorado.
Brenda embodies the values of service, excellence, and community that define this award. Her long‑standing dedication to client care, her leadership in shaping the next generation of occupational therapy practitioners, and her enthusiasm for contributing to Colorado’s OT community make her an outstanding nominee for the Agatha Jackson COTA Award of Excellence.

09/27/2026

Congratulations to the 2026 Marjorie Ball Award recipient Dr Shelly Lane!

Shelly Lane has served as the Academic Program Director in the Occupational Therapy Department at Colorado State University for the past 7 years. She led the Department through the final stages of development of the OTD program and the accreditation process. She has taught and mentored CSU graduate students and students from numerous other OT programs throughout the world. She is internationally known for applying neuroscience to OT Practice. She is the recipient of the 2026 Eleanor Clarke Slagle lectureship, the highest academic award bestowed by the American Occupational Therapy Association.

09/27/2026

We like to think our conference is something special. How cool to see that OTPs traveled from all over the the country to attend! Thank you for visiting our beautiful mountains and adding to the incredible vibes.