Jordan, Pyatak named fellows of the American Occupational Therapy Association
October 30, 2019

By Mike McNulty

Associate Chair of Clinical Services and Clinical Professor Katie Jordan MA ’03, OTD ’04 and Associate Professor Beth Pyatak MA ’04, PhD ’10 have been named recipients of the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Roster of Fellows award. The award recognizes occupational therapist members of AOTA who have made a significant contribution over time to the association and the profession through knowledge, expertise, leadership, advocacy and guidance.

An expert on reimbursement policy and care delivery

Jordan will be recognized as an AOTA Fellow for her “reimbursement-related expertise and academic medical center leadership.” In a career spanning more than 15 years, Jordan has become one of the profession’s foremost experts on reimbursement-related regulation and policy, and on the delivery of clinical services at large academic medical centers. She is currently AOTA’s advisor to the Healthcare Professional Advisory Committee for the Relative-Value Update Committee for the American Medical Association, a crucial role that literally affects every practitioner in the nation who bills using the AMA’s Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes.

As the division’s associate chair of clinical services, Jordan oversees more than three dozen USC Chan faculty clinicians working at 10 clinical sites throughout the Greater Los Angeles area. Thanks to her leadership during the past decade, the number of clinicians under her supervision has nearly tripled in size, annual operating budgets have increased nearly 250 percent and aggregated annual patient volume for occupational therapy clinical services has increased by 30 percent.

Earlier this year, she was appointed to the National Quality Forum’s Opioid and Opioid Use Disorder Technical Expert Panel. Jordan is the only occupational therapy practitioner on the 25-member group conducting a scholarly and practical scan of the current state of opioid-related healthcare quality measures used by federal programs to assess care service quality. She served as guest editor of the Sept./Oct. 2019 special issue of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy focused on primary care occupational therapy service and issues.

A prolific researcher on diabetes and lifestyle interventions

Pyatak will be recognized as an AOTA Fellow for her “research excellence in diabetes, chronic conditions management.” In her 15-year career as an occupational therapist and researcher, Pyatak has established herself among the profession’s premier scholars in chronic care management, occupational engagement and health and well-being among individuals with disability and/or chronic illness, most specifically, diabetes.

Pyatak currently manages more than $6.6 million dollars in NIH grant funding as the principal investigator of two R01 grants funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, putting her among the profession’s highest-funded scholars. She has authored more than 30 articles (14 as first author) in peer-reviewed journals including the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, OTJR, Journal of Occupational Science, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, The Diabetes Educator, Diabetic Medicine, Patient Education and Counseling, Journal of Adolescent Health and Diabetes Care. She has delivered 18 major invited presentations and 30 refereed presentations at domestic and international gatherings. She has served as a manuscript and book chapter reviewer for AOTA Press since 2012, and has reviewed abstracts for six AOTA annual conferences.

Perhaps most importantly, Pyatak’s research agenda promises to transform approaches to customized, client-centered care for the 30 million Americans currently living with diabetes. Her scholarship also offers insights on timely topics for professional and academic communities including the translation of basic knowledge to clinical applications, developing best practices for the “manualization” of interventions and enhanced appreciation for the variety and nuance of the lived experiences of people who have chronic conditions and disabilities.

Jordan and Pyatak will receive their awards during the annual awards and recognition ceremony at the 2020 AOTA Conference in Boston.

USC alumna Megan Chang MA ’01, PhD ’09 will also be named to the Roster of Fellows in 2020.

The full list of AOTA’s 2020 award recipients is available at aota.org/Education-Careers/Awards/Recipients/2020.aspx.

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