PhD candidate Franklin receives AOTF Kielhofner Award
February 7, 2025

By Mike McNulty

Occupational science PhD candidate Marshae Franklin OTD ’21, PhD ’26 was named the 2025 recipient of the Dr. Gary Kielhofner Doctoral Research Scholarship in Occupational Therapy awarded by the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF). This $5,000 scholarship is awarded annually to an occupational therapist enrolled in a doctoral-level research program in order to support their scholarship and, ultimately, to advance occupational therapy research.

Franklin’s award, “Exploring Authentic Belonging as Narrated by Black Autistic Women in STEM and Its Implications for DEI in Higher Education and Beyond,” will use a qualitative and participatory approach to expand belonging theory in occupational therapy. Specifically, her dissertation aims to illuminate barriers to “belonging” in STEM to facilitate social change, which will then provide empirical evidence informing a new occupation-based intervention that will promote authentic belonging for all.

“I’m truly honored to have received the 2025 AOTF Dr. Gary Kielhofner Doctoral Research Scholarship in Occupational Therapy,” Franklin said. “My goal as a career scientist is to promote authentic belonging, particularly for those historically taught to hide aspects of themselves to belong, whether implicitly or explicitly. I look forward to shedding light on these experiences and bridging the gap between research and practice to cultivate safer spaces where everyone can authentically belong. I extend my deepest gratitude to AOTF for supporting my research efforts.”

Franklin is a member of the Disparity Reduction and Equity in Autism Services, or DREAmS, Lab led by Assistant Professor Amber Angell. The DREAmS lab research team focuses on groups of autistic people who are under-identified with autism, under-represented in research and under-served in health systems.

The award’s namesake, Gary Keilhofner MA ’75, was one of the most influential and transformational figures in occupational therapy history. The Model of Human Occupation, which he developed along with Janice Burke MA ’75 starting during their time together as graduate students at USC in the 1970s, is one of the most widely-used theories in occupation therapy research and practice.

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