By Jill Pease
In 2017, at the start of Sherrilene Classen’s tenure as chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, the faculty crafted a vision for the department: to become a vibrant preeminent research and educational entity in the U.S. by 2025.
Eight and a half years later, by any standard, the department has collectively met or exceeded its vision. The UF Doctor of Occupational Therapy program is ranked in the Top 5 among publics by U.S. News & World Report graduate school rankings; student enrollment has grown more than 60%, and the number of faculty members has quadrupled, resulting in enormous increases in research funding as well as national honors.
“The department is on a trajectory for continued success due to Dr. Classen’s strategic vision,” said Christine Myers, Ph.D., OTR/L, a clinical professor in the department and director of the Doctor of Occupational Therapy program. “We are fiscally healthy with top-notch faculty and staff who will continue to capitalize on that success for the foreseeable future. This includes research contributions that make a difference for individuals and communities, an O.T. education program that graduates high-quality, evidence-based therapists, and service activities that address the needs of our local community and the state of Florida.”
Known for having an excellent eye for talent, Classen has recruited leading educators and scientists to the department. She seized opportunities to increase the number of faculty and staff, including securing new faculty lines through university preeminence funding. The department has grown from five faculty members in 2017 to 24 today.
The past eight-plus years signify a period of intense growth, exploration, self-examination, self-discovery, engagement, learning and evolving for herself and the department colleagues who have played a critical role in the department’s achievements, Classen said.
“Miracles, mystery and magic, as well as material resources, and awesome people appeared at the right time, and in the right places, to help accomplish our vision,” said Classen, who stepped down as chair July 31.
Classen remains on the faculty to finish research projects before beginning her next chapter. Myers serves as interim chair while a national chair search is completed.
Additional department accomplishments under Classen’s leadership include:
- Launch of the Doctor of Occupational Therapy program, the first at a Florida public institution, and receiving the optimum number of years for accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education.
- Establishment of the Bachelor of Health Science-Doctor of Occupational Therapy combination degree program, the first of its kind in the U.S and a model for standards created for such programs by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education.
- Increased recruitment and mentorship for postdoctoral associates and students in the college’s interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in rehabilitation science.
- Creation of the SmartDriver clinical rehabilitation program and a post-professional certificate in driver rehabilitation therapy.
- Increase in research funding from next to zero in 2017 to more than $2 million today, including two R01 grants, the first in department history.
- Introduction of the Sandra Edwards Colloquium, an annual event bringing together clinicians, scientists, faculty and students to discuss best practices and transformational research in occupational therapy and featuring keynotes by nationally-recognized scientists.
- Host of the 2024 OT Summit for Scholars, a national competitive conference attracting leading occupational therapy scholars.
“We’ve got national visibility, and we’re sitting around all of the tables where it matters,” Classen said.
Prior to leading the UF Department of Occupational Therapy, Classen served as the director of the School of Occupational Therapy at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. Coming back to UF, where she previously served from 2002 to 2013, first as a postdoctoral associate and later as an assistant and then a tenured associate professor, was a calling she couldn’t ignore, Classen said.
“It was the right time for me,” she said. “It was a major challenge and an incredible walk of faith and endurance, and knowing that the impossible can be probable and the probable can become possible, and the possible becomes doable and manifests as reality.”
Anyone familiar with Classen’s energy knows her next phase will not be sedate. She teaches more than a dozen exercise classes a week at Gainesville Health and Fitness, provides individual and group transformational coaching sessions, leads adventure travel groups and a book club, and plans to keep climbing. In recent years, she has scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc and Mount Baker, and completed the 90-mile Mount Everest Base Camp Circuit Trek.
“Climbing mountains and understanding that I’m not conquering the mountain, I’m conquering aspects of myself every time I climb, has been an amazing adventure for me,” she said.