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Faculty

Faculty180 – Vita and Individual Profile Data Sheet

Joanna Seber, OTD, OTR/L, MS, BA

Fall 1980 - Fall 2120

Associate Professor I

Occupational Therapy Program - CA

joannaseber@scuhs.edu

Current Position

Position: University Faculty
Position: OTD CA Core Faculty

Biography

Dr. Joanna Seber brings extensive clinical experience in pediatric occupational therapy to her faculty role.  Dr. Seber's primary areas of interest for practice include family-centered care, self-care skills, sexual health and self-advocacy, and perinatal wellness.  Dr. Seber's primary areas of interest for scholarship include occupation-based assessment for client-centeredness and enhancing clinician capacity to utilize theory in practice.  She is deeply rooted in the Model of Human Occupation and the Intentional Relationship Model, each born from her alma mater.

Dr. Seber graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) with a Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT).  She then worked in a variety of pediatric and young adult settings, including public schools and community-based programs, for over a decade. Dr. Seber returned to UIC to earn her Occupational Therapy Doctorate under the mentorship of her beloved professors from her MSOT.  She aspires to offer students the high quality mentorship which established her clinical foundation and inspired her academic role.

Dr. Seber values lifelong learning.  Following her own experience of the transition into a parent role, she felt inspired to expand her skills in integrative perinatal health.  Most recently, she has collaborated with community-based mothers groups and physical therapy clinics to support wellness for women. 

Dr. Seber is also passionate about working intentionally to promote diversity in the profession of occupational therapy. She is committed to the work of antiracism in her home, community, clinic, and classroom.

In her free time, Dr. Seber enjoys spending time with her family and her Golden Retriever. She maintains a regular yoga practice and finds peace in nature.

Degrees

2019

O.T.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2011

OT, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States

Professional Licensures (Healthcare)

Occupational Therapist, California, United States, Active, 2011, December 2024

Scholarly Contributions and Creative Productions

Chapter

Completed/Published

Seber, J. Jefferson Union High School District: Sexuality and Dating Skills Training/School Systems. In Cases in Pediatric Occupational Therapy Assessment and Intervention; Slack Incorporated: Thorofare New Jersey, 2015; pp 82–84.

Journal Article

Completed/Published

Cahill, S. M.; Egan, B. E.; Seber, J. Activity- and Occupation-Based Interventions to Support Mental Health, Positive Behavior, and Social Participation for Children and Youth: A Systematic Review. 2022, 74, 7402180020p1–p7402180020p28.
Seber, J. Sexual Health Education: Developing and Implementing a Curriculum for Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities. OT Practice 2017, 22.

Professional Membership

Fall 2022 - Ongoing

American Occupational Therapy Association, August 2009, PRESENT

Hear from the Students Who’ve Been in Your Shoes

I chose SCU when looking for a PA program because of their Integrative Medicine approach. I am from Michigan, and not many programs focus on this Integrative, Holistic approach when it comes to patient care in the Midwest, and I felt that was very important for me to learn as a future provider. My transition to semi-virtual learning has been very smooth and quite enjoyable. [su_accordion][su_spoiler title="Read More..." open="No"]My favorite part about attending SCU is how tight-knit and diverse the community is. Coming from a large undergrad university and moving so far, it was very important for me to have a PA program that made me feel valued and invested in my success. At SCU, they do a great job of making you feel that.[/su_spoiler][/su_accordion]

Brianna Hadley

MSPA Class of 2022

One of the great things about SCU is we do have a campus layout, so all your classes aren't in a single room. We have our cadaver lab. We have different specialty rooms for physical assessment classes vs. acupuncture classes. All our acupuncture-specific classes have all the herbs in the room. You can pull out the herbs and look at them, whether in class or in between classes to get that extra studying in.[su_accordion][su_spoiler title="Read More..." open="No"]My favorite part of SCU is the collaboration from our beginning terms. We were working alongside chiropractor students, PA students, and ayurvedic students. It's a unique community where we get to learn about these different fields and sit in classrooms with them and work with them in the clinic. It allows you to get an understanding of all the different fields and how they can work together, and what is unique about your field. I think that is a wonderful aspect that I didn't think was going to be as prominent as it is here; even now, in my upper term classes and I am not in class with chiropractic students, I can still reach out to them about a certain aspect I may not understand or if I am working on a case. I want another perspective I know I have them to reach out to, so that has been a great networking community to have resources for.[/su_spoiler][/su_accordion]

 

Dr. Jamie Kuljis

Graduate, Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

"There are a lot of things that I love about the program at SCU. The first one is that the faculty come from a long line of Ayurvedic knowledge deeply rooted in ancient classical text. They studied Ayurveda, but they also lived it. When you learn from people who embody this wisdom, it's much easier to grasp this knowledge. The second thing I love is the camaraderie within the cohort. The combination of the training, supportive faculty, and the support of my peers and classmates has given me the confidence I need to start my own practice."

Portia Harris

Student, Ayurveda Program

Some of my favorite courses at SCU have to be the chiropractic procedure classes; those are the classes you get to hone in on your chiro skills, your palpation skills and ultimately work on the adjustments that make you a chiropractor. Those are the classes I feel enhance my knowledge the most and are some of the reasons I chose to become a chiropractor here are SCU.[su_accordion][su_spoiler title="Read More..." open="No"]On top of chiropractic procedures classes, my favorite is the cadaver lab experience. The cadaver classes opened up my perception of what the human body is made up of. It allowed me to get an in-person perspective of how the body works and looks on the inside. I am genuinely thankful for those experiences because they opened and broadened my horizons to the human body and anatomy in general.[/su_spoiler][/su_accordion]

 

Jordan Vega

Student, Doctor of Chiropractic

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