This fall’s Mitchell Symposium will be held in a hybrid format – both in-person and virtually – and features a lecture and Q&A presented by Dr. Gail Whiteford.
This annual event is dedicated to the late Marlys Mitchell, PhD, founder of the MS OT program at UNC, and her husband, Earl. We invite you to a public lecture that is part of a two-day symposium in which students will have opportunities to discuss Dr. Whiteford’s work.
Register to Attend In-Person (Bondurant G-100)
Zoom Link
Mitchell Symposium Flyer
Doing Our Best: Individual and Collective Responses to Challenging Times
This lecture will discuss a national project undertaken in Australia which focused on how individuals, families and communities responded [occupationally] to COVID, wildfires, floods and droughts. Drawn from diverse community members, the project called for, reviewed and curated stories reflective of the voices of everyday Australians – Aboriginal Elders, young children, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disability and people living in rural and remote locations. These diverse stories highlight the [occupational] responses and the agency enacted by people in a range of contexts in tough times. The stories are compelling – in turn frightening, funny, inspiring and heart warming and are a rich vein of “ways of knowing” that contain many elements that we can learn from going forward.
About Dr. Gail Whiteford
Dr. Whiteford has been an active contributor to occupational therapy and occupational science for three decades. She has served in clinical, managerial, academic and consulting roles including for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Australia. Her contribution to the profession has been recognized through awards from international bodies including the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists and Occupational Therapy Australia and her giving keynote addresses in 11 countries. She was made an inaugural Fellow of the Occupational Therapy Research Academy in 2017, has authored 4 books and published numerous referred publications. Professionally, Dr. Whiteford has held a number of senior academic, executive and conjoint appointments in Australia, New Zealand and Canada and served as Australia’s first Pro Vice Chancellor of Social Inclusion. She was the Strategic Professor and Conjoint Chair of Allied Health and Community Wellbeing and was appointed by the Minister of Health to a regional health district board with oversight of 7 hospitals. She currently leads an international team on the World Federation of Occupational Therapists Occupational Narratives Data Base project.
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