Faculty Bio Detail
Donna Breger Stanton - MA, OTR/L, CHT, FAOTA
Associate Professor
Occupational Therapy
Email: dbreger@samuelmerritt.edu
Program:Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT)
Telephone: 510-869-6743
Address: 450 30th Street
Oakland - CA 94609
I have a BS in OT from San Jose State College, and MA, OT from University of Southern California. I have practiced in multiple specialty areas including neuro rehab, orthopedics, sensory integration, pediatrics and in psychosocial. I became interested in hand therapy have focused in this area of practice for more than 20 years. I was president of the American Society of Hand Therapists in 2005, and was secretary of a newly formed La Federation de Mano (of North and Central Americas for hand surgeons and therapist) from 2005 - 2010. I served as vice chair of the ASHT annual meeting committee in Boston, MA Oct 23-26, 2008, and at that meeting presented a workshop about musician's injuries co-lead with my nephew and jazz musician, composer Javier Arau who own and runs the New York Jazz Academy. I was a co-chair of the combined annual meeting of ASSH and ASHT in San Francisco, September 2009. I have enjoyed these organizational experiences and these lead me to other important opportunities. I spent three years, for one week per year on medical mission with Guatemala Healing Hands from 2005-2007 which allowed me opportunity to use my clinical skills and works with children and adults in Guatemala City who needed my OT/Hand Therapy expertise, while working with a medical team. We experienced working in several clinics and hospitals depending upon where we were needed. I won a scholarship award to travel to Thailand, from AAHS, although unfortunately was not able to make this important trip intended to help treat and teach therapists in Thailand. I am hoping to find another time to go at another time.
Research Interests:
Contrast baths, sensibility testing, carpal tunnel syndrome
Publications and Presentations:
I have multiple publications primarily found in the Journal of Hand Therapy. The most recent publication to be found will be based on the speech given for the Nathalie Barr Award Lecture at the 2007 ASHT meeting in Phoenix, AZ on the topic of "Mind, Body, and Science of Hand Therapy."
As one of four co-editiors for a special issues of the Journal of Hand Therapy, the topic is focused on the "wounded Warriors" and was published spring 2008.
With my co-author Rolando Lazaro, our paper originated as a student paper, a systematic review of contrast baths, why do we use them? was published early in 2009 Journal of Hand Therapy
Professional and Community Service and Professional Memberships:
American Society of Hand Therapists
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Association of Hand Surgury
Occupational Therapy Association of California
American Society for Surgery of the Hand
Member of Editorial Review Board, Journal of Hand Therapy
Member of SMU Faculty Org and serve on Research and Faculty Development committees
Fellowships, Grants, and Awards:
Nathalie Barr Lectureship Award, for 2007
Faculty Scholarship Grant March 2007 to research on Contrast Baths
President, Faculty Organization, SMU 2006-2008
President, American Society of Hand Therapists, 2005
Secretary, La Federacion de Mano, 2007-2010
Courses Taught at Samuel Merritt University:
I am responsible for Level II occupational therapy fieldwork, including finding and making the placements for the internships. I teach research groups, one of which is a multi-center study of the effectiveness of contrast baths. Data has been collected and remains to be analyzed and reported for this IRB approved study. More recently, Rolando Lazaro, DPT, PT, GCS and I as ongoing co-investigators presented a study also originating from a student research project in which we surveyed the OT Program chairs to learn how OT programs are incorporating physical and electrical agents since updating of ACOTE standards January 1, 2008. We were interested in learning more about the consistency of education thermal agent modalities in the OT curriculum. The OT synthesis project for 2010 was a systematic review of disease specific assessment tools used in RA.
Courses taught at Samuel Merritt University include: Adaptive Technology and Introduction to Modalities; Foundations of Occupational Therapy; Complementary Healthcare Systems in Occupational Therapy, Research and Introduction to Level I Fieldwork and Level II fieldwork. Currently my focus has been on Level II fieldwork and one new research group per year for the past 5 years.
Associate Professor
Occupational Therapy
Email: dbreger@samuelmerritt.edu
Program:Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT)
Telephone: 510-869-6743
Address: 450 30th Street
Oakland - CA 94609
I have a BS in OT from San Jose State College, and MA, OT from University of Southern California. I have practiced in multiple specialty areas including neuro rehab, orthopedics, sensory integration, pediatrics and in psychosocial. I became interested in hand therapy have focused in this area of practice for more than 20 years. I was president of the American Society of Hand Therapists in 2005, and was secretary of a newly formed La Federation de Mano (of North and Central Americas for hand surgeons and therapist) from 2005 - 2010. I served as vice chair of the ASHT annual meeting committee in Boston, MA Oct 23-26, 2008, and at that meeting presented a workshop about musician's injuries co-lead with my nephew and jazz musician, composer Javier Arau who own and runs the New York Jazz Academy. I was a co-chair of the combined annual meeting of ASSH and ASHT in San Francisco, September 2009. I have enjoyed these organizational experiences and these lead me to other important opportunities. I spent three years, for one week per year on medical mission with Guatemala Healing Hands from 2005-2007 which allowed me opportunity to use my clinical skills and works with children and adults in Guatemala City who needed my OT/Hand Therapy expertise, while working with a medical team. We experienced working in several clinics and hospitals depending upon where we were needed. I won a scholarship award to travel to Thailand, from AAHS, although unfortunately was not able to make this important trip intended to help treat and teach therapists in Thailand. I am hoping to find another time to go at another time.
Research Interests:
Contrast baths, sensibility testing, carpal tunnel syndrome
Publications and Presentations:
I have multiple publications primarily found in the Journal of Hand Therapy. The most recent publication to be found will be based on the speech given for the Nathalie Barr Award Lecture at the 2007 ASHT meeting in Phoenix, AZ on the topic of "Mind, Body, and Science of Hand Therapy."
As one of four co-editiors for a special issues of the Journal of Hand Therapy, the topic is focused on the "wounded Warriors" and was published spring 2008.
With my co-author Rolando Lazaro, our paper originated as a student paper, a systematic review of contrast baths, why do we use them? was published early in 2009 Journal of Hand Therapy
Professional and Community Service and Professional Memberships:
American Society of Hand Therapists
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Association of Hand Surgury
Occupational Therapy Association of California
American Society for Surgery of the Hand
Member of Editorial Review Board, Journal of Hand Therapy
Member of SMU Faculty Org and serve on Research and Faculty Development committees
Fellowships, Grants, and Awards:
Nathalie Barr Lectureship Award, for 2007
Faculty Scholarship Grant March 2007 to research on Contrast Baths
President, Faculty Organization, SMU 2006-2008
President, American Society of Hand Therapists, 2005
Secretary, La Federacion de Mano, 2007-2010
Courses Taught at Samuel Merritt University:
I am responsible for Level II occupational therapy fieldwork, including finding and making the placements for the internships. I teach research groups, one of which is a multi-center study of the effectiveness of contrast baths. Data has been collected and remains to be analyzed and reported for this IRB approved study. More recently, Rolando Lazaro, DPT, PT, GCS and I as ongoing co-investigators presented a study also originating from a student research project in which we surveyed the OT Program chairs to learn how OT programs are incorporating physical and electrical agents since updating of ACOTE standards January 1, 2008. We were interested in learning more about the consistency of education thermal agent modalities in the OT curriculum. The OT synthesis project for 2010 was a systematic review of disease specific assessment tools used in RA.
Courses taught at Samuel Merritt University include: Adaptive Technology and Introduction to Modalities; Foundations of Occupational Therapy; Complementary Healthcare Systems in Occupational Therapy, Research and Introduction to Level I Fieldwork and Level II fieldwork. Currently my focus has been on Level II fieldwork and one new research group per year for the past 5 years.