Amie Germain, MOTR/L, Ed.D., has provided pediatric occupational therapy services in a variety of practice settings , including early intervention, preschool, school based, private practice, and hospital based. Before coming to Ithaca College, Dr. Germain was a senior-level Occupational Therapist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where she served as the lead Occupational Therapist for the Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome (AMPS) program (formerly known as the Reflex Neurovascular Dystrophy program). Locally, Dr. Germain has provided occupational therapy services to children birth through high school age as a service provider with the Tompkins County Department of Health, the Lansing Central School District, and in the Occupational and Physical Therapy Clinic at Ithaca College.
Dr. Germain's experience as a pediatric Occupational Therapist and love of teaching in higher education brought her to Universal Design for Learning. As an Occupational Therapist, Dr. Germain uses a lens of human occupation (meaninful activities that humans engage in everyday) to understand the interaction and create the ideal fit between the person, environment, and occupation. This lens unites perfectly with Universal Design for Learning framework, which is "a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn" (CAST, 2018, para. 1). Using Universal Design for Learning as a design framework and foundation for teaching, Dr. Germain has created and re-designed courses in higher education that promote learner agency, flexibility, and universal support.
The natural fit between Universal Design for Learning and Occupational Therapy served as the catalyst for Dr. Germain to engage in additional education as an adult learner. Dr. Germain completed a 15-week Universal Design for Learning course through the CAST organization (orginially knowd as Center for Applied Special Technology), and returned to school to earn her doctoral degree in education (Ed.D.) with a focus on leadership in higher education and additional coursework completed in teaching and learning in higher education. Dr. Germain's dissertation focused on application of the Universal Design for Learning framework in higher education. Recently, Dr. Germain presented her research findings at the international summit for the Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network (UDL-IRN).
Dr. Germain is an active member of both the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) and the Universal Design for Learning Higher Education Network (UDLHE).
Occupational Roles:
Dr. Germain is a wife, mother of two children and two dogs, daughter, therapist, educator, friend, lover of Cayuga Lake and Ithaca, frequent paddler, experimental cook, hopeful gardener, and developing golfer.