Jessica Dashner, OTD, OTR/L

Jessica Dashner, OTD, OTR/L

Jessica Dashner, OTD, OTR/L, is an Instructor of Occupational Therapy and Neurology at the Program in Occupational Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology/occupational therapy from McKendree University in Lebanon, Ill., and a doctorate in occupational therapy from Washington University.

Dashner teaches courses on environmental factors and participation, technology, and environmental interventions to support participation, health promotion for people with chronic disease, and fundamentals of health care.

For over 10 years, she worked as a research associate/project manager in the Disability and Community Participation Research Laboratory with Dr. David Gray at Washington University to develop and administer surveys of participation to people with mobility and sensory impairments living in the community and receiving services from Independent Living Centers.

She has been an Investigator on several research projects, including the Research and Training Center on Community Living to examine the influence of training for personal attendant service providers and consumers on health and community participation, and a grant through the Paralyzed Veterans of America to develop a parenting self-management program for individuals with spinal cord injury/disease.

In addition, she is currently an investigator on a project funded by the National Science Foundation, The Missouri Transect: Climate, Plants, and Community, to engage individuals with spinal cord injury in STEM fields. Dashner’s role on this project will be to work with members of the CBRN.