A native Albertan, Susan has spent a significant portion of her life in Corbett Hall. She attended primary school here, then returned for undergraduate and graduate work in occupational therapy, and is now completing doctoral studies in rehabilitation sciences. Her clinical and administrative work has been in mental health and vocational rehabilitation in Alberta, B.C. and Washington state. She has taught and been an academic administrator in occupational therapy at U.B.C. and in Texas. In addition to her passion for occupational therapy, Susan is also an artist who works with glass, and has exhibited and taught in Alberta and British Columbia. Her experiences with art have rekindled an interest in arts occupations as therapy. Susan is fascinated by emerging information technologies, and sees them as having huge potential for occupational therapy clinical practice, education and research, as well as for building communities. She is interested in qualitative research approaches, particularly narrative inquiry. Finally, she is intrigued by how occupational therapy practice can be extended to community settings operating under a variety of models such as harm reduction, health promotion and community development.

Clinical or policy implications of research:
My doctoral research is a narrative inquiry focusing on stories of occupational therapists successfully practicing in ways congruent with occupational therapy principles while working in settings that largely operate from a biomedical model. My hope is that this research, focused on examples of “positive deviance”, will promote further discussion of occupational therapy identity and provide strategies to enhance the profession’s ability to move powerfully within current and new practice areas. 

Inspiration/Vision Statement:
"The ideas that have lighted my way have been kindness, beauty and truth."
               – A. Einstein

Recent publications:
     Wiart, L. & Burwash, S. (2007). Qualitative research is evidence, too. Australian Journal of Physiotherapy, 53, 215 – 216.
     Liu, L, Triscott, J., Dobbs, B., Strain, L., Burwash, S., Cleary, S., Hopper, T. & Warren, S. (2007). Distance delivery of geriatric consultation to family physicians in rural Alberta: Preliminary results. International Association of Science and Technology for Development Conference Proceedings
     Burwash, S. & Cotkin, K. (1999). “Deus ex machina: Distance education as solution?”. In P. Crist (Ed.) Innovations in occupational therapy education 1999.  Bethesda, MD: American Occupational Therapy Association.
     Burwash S. (1999). “A teaching model for occupational therapy work practice”.  WORK: A journal of prevention, assessment and rehabilitation, 12: 133-137.
     Burwash, S. (1997). Net Impact: Canadian OT Content on the Web. The National, 14(6).