DURING 17 YEARS ON THE FACULTY at BU’s School of Public Health (SPH), Emily Rothman developed an international reputation for her violence prevention research, in particular for her studies of intimate partner violence and sexually explicit media. But her daughter’s diagnosis on the autism spectrum led to a new line of research, a relationship with autism researchers at Sargent, and a professional pivot. In September 2021, Sargent named Rothman chair of the occupational therapy department.“The challenges of leadership—and the opportunity to mentor and support others—was something that I wanted for the next chapter of my career,” she says of her new role.

Rothman, who also maintains appointments at SPH and the School of Medicine, spoke with Inside Sargent about the state of OT, her autism research, and what most excites her about her new job.

 

Inside Sargent: What do you bring as a leader to this department?

Emily Rothman: First, I bring my appreciation for the faculty and staff of this top-ranked program and gratitude to be able to work alongside them. And, I think that I bring passion for disability justice, antiracism, and centering the needs of sexual and gender minority individuals. I also hope that my background in public health means that I can open new doors and make new connections. People in occupational therapy are doing incredible research and meaningful scholarship, but there are some ways in which they’ve been siloed away from access to grant funding opportunities and certain corners of the world stage. To give one concrete example, I’ve been on an editorial board of a journal in substance use treatment for many years. When I joined the world of OT, I proposed to the journal that they devote a special issue to substance abuse treatment and OT. The editor in chief kindly agreed, and I am pleased to say that now faculty in the OT department are preparing manuscripts which highlight OT’s role and distinct value within substance abuse treatment for that issue.

 

Have the fields of OT and public health evolved in ways that bring them closer?

People are increasingly embracing not only what, in OT, is called occupational justice—which aligns with what I’ve always thought of as social justice—but our students are enthusiastic about learning how social determinants of health influence their clients and how they are going to be able to address those through their work. That’s fundamental to how I’ve approached the study of public health problems. The moment is absolutely ideal for this interdisciplinary collaboration between public health and occupational therapy.

 

OT has typically had a micro approach while public health focused on the macro. How do you see those approaches complementing each other?

Historically, as a clinical practice, people in OT have focused on each client as an individual. But in order to engage with health sciences more broadly, occupational therapists also generate evidence, read evidence, and think more broadly about patterns related to what is causing disability. When people have limitations to their activities of daily living, are we seeing subgroups of people that experience these in different ways that can be related to factors that are in their community or in our society? It isn’t really possible to achieve excellence in occupational therapy without being able to integrate both that individual level and macro level thinking.

 

What are you learning from the members of the OT department?

I am very powerfully inspired by the drive and commitment that I see in every faculty member and every student. They have a deep-seated mission to make the experience of living in this world more comfortable, more possible, more accessible for other people. There’s something so beautiful and so moving about that. It’s very emotional. They are living their commitment to helping others in this really profound way.

 

You mentioned pivoting to autism research a few years ago. What are you working on now?

I have several projects, and several involve current OT students. BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) autistic people have been marginalized in discussions about the health needs of the autistic population. And so one project involves 12 BIPOC autistic adults learning how to be research advisors and join advisory boards for research projects so that their perspectives and voices can be centered in those meetings. Entry-level OT student Megan Sullivan is our project coordinator. A different project is reaching high school students for sex education, and OT students Tori Richardson and Delaney Moslander are analyzing our qualitative data for publication.

 

What else are you working on?

I have a one-year project that involves working closely with six autistic people who have recent experiences with sexual assault at college. They are collaborating on the development of an online training that will help college sexual assault counselors understand the different needs of autistic college students. A second project is an online class for autistic adults that teaches healthy friendship and dating relationship skills, funded by the National Institutes of Health. I am actively seeking OT practitioner partners for that project now. And third, I am researching underage alcohol use by autistic adolescents. We didn’t really know if it was also a problem for autistic teenagers—most people believed that autistic teenagers don’t get invited to parties, so we probably don’t have to worry about drinking. But that turns out to be incorrect. We’ve done survey research and qualitative interviews that have uncovered that underage drinking absolutely can be a problem for some autistic adolescents and can become problematic substance use. Now I’m thinking about how to develop an online class for autistic people about healthy alcohol and drug use.

 

Do you view these projects as public health projects, OT projects—or is there no need to label them?

Some of these hard and fast boundaries between what counts as an “OT group intervention” versus a “public health intervention” aren’t always necessary or useful. We should just engage in what works! The specific background that you come from may or may not matter, depending on the intervention.

 

What are you most excited about right now?

Number one, the students. They are extraordinarily compassionate people and on fire with energy for changing the world. And I’m excited to see the research of our faculty continue to break new ground. We’re not only a top-ranked professional program, but all of the faculty are also engaged in scholarship. I have a lot of energy for thinking about how we all can continue to reach an expanding national and international audience.