TWU faculty member demonstrates commitment to students and the OT profession

Texas Woman’s School of Occupational Therapy Associate Clinical Professor Shannon Levandowski, OTD, leads by lifting and empowering others on a local, state and national level. Through her work at TWU and for the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), she continues to serve as an advocate for students and the occupational therapy field.

In addition to her teaching duties at TWU, Levandowski shares her passion for developing future occupational therapists by serving as the academic fieldwork coordinator for the occupational therapy programs at all three TWU campuses. She works with fieldwork site educators, and along with her team, Tesse Scott and Amanda Adams, typically coordinates more than 1,100 fieldwork placements each year.

She provided clear solutions when the COVID pandemic hit, balancing the tough decision of pulling all level one students and shifting to a telehealth community volunteer-based experience. At the same time, she worked with occupational therapists in the field to secure summer rotations for the majority of level two fieldwork students. Despite the subsequent related barriers related to clinical education access, her team was able to successfully place and support more than 70% of the cohort toward December 2020 graduation.

“I most enjoy seeing students transition to clinicians during their rotations,” said Levandowski. “Watching students make connections in their academic content to clinical application is extremely rewarding.”

Levandowski also serves as a College of Health Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Fellow, has been recognized as a TWU Universal Design Champion and serves as a resource for campus faculty in their efforts to make their courses more accessible to all learners.

Levandowski’s transformational leadership style not only influences her TWU colleagues, but her national ones as well. She serves as chair of the Academic Fieldwork and Capstone Coordinator and on the Academic Leadership Council for AOTA (AFWCC-ALC). Her responsibilities include facilitating the leadership council meetings and organizing breakout sessions and keynote speakers, as well as serving on the AOTA’s Commission on Education. With her fellow Academic Leadership Council chairs, she provides a forum for approximately 580 program coordinators and administrators where they can present, examine and debate educational issues related to experiential learning in the curriculum. Levandowski also serves as an expert consultant to those members and to the council’s policy-making bodies.

“Serving the profession through national volunteer roles, to me, is essential to the growth and visibly of occupational therapy practice,” she said. “I believe in leading by example, so my hope is that students are encouraged to participate in national advocacy and volunteer work through my example.”

When the COVID pandemic began, Levandowski continued to be laser-focused supporting her networks and problem solving through new challenges. In response to AOTA’s need for fieldwork guidance during the pandemic, she was appointed to the AOTA President’s Fieldwork COVID Task Force to ensure adherence to ACOTE standards, discuss alternative fieldwork opportunities and create new solutions to facilitate student progression in both fieldwork and academics. Part of her advocacy efforts included highlighting major stop gaps in the student progression towards certification and employment as a result of the shutdown, including proposing alternative testing solutions and developing alternative forms to allow students to schedule testing for future dates. The response to these requests was met with a change in process that allowed students the ability to gain temporary license access as they waited for testing.

Levandowski also is an AOTA Credentialed Leader in Academia and holds two AOTA Board certifications in Pediatrics and School-Based Practice, respectively. She served on the AOTA pediatric job analysis committee for the AOTA revised board certification exam (former BASC).

In the community, Levandowski continues to work as a home health practitioner and supervises three COTAs, all while being a mother and working towards completing her first half marathon this December. Amid COVID, she also defended her dissertation, “An Investigation of Woman’s Leadership Styles in Higher Education,” as part of her Doctorate in Education in Leadership and Innovation.

Levandowski’s passionate energy, devotion to students and unwavering commitment to the advancement of occupational therapy continue to bring great pride to TWU.