February 2020! 

Doris Ann Slack, OT

*Where do you currently reside? Wilmington, NC

*What college did you attend? Western Michigan University
*How long have you been practicing OT? 30+ years practicing but now retired
*What areas have/do you practice in? Home Health, academia, prosthetics and orthotics

This special lady will be turning 100 years old on February 15th!! As OT Practitioners, we want to show her some OT love! Please join us in acknowledging her contribution to the profession as well as celebrate this milestone! Our goal is 100 birthday cards for her 100th birthday! 

If you know her, take a few moments to share with her what she has meant to you as an OT practitioner.  If you do not know Doris, wish her a happy birthday and feel free to share why OT is important to you.  

Please send all cards to: 

NCOTA 

c/o Doris Ann Slack

PO Box 20432

Raleigh NC, 27617

 

We plan to surprise Doris with a special package containing all of your cards and notes. Please postmark your correspondence by 2/23/20 as she will be celebrating this milestone birthday for an entire week! Please continue to check the NCOTA website for birthday card campaign updates, as well as Doris’ reaction of her celebration. 

More About Doris: 

Doris Ann Slack was born in Bloomington, Illinois on February 15, 1920.  As a young child, she moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan where she grew up with three brothers and a sister. After graduation from Creston High School in 1938, she attended Grand Rapids Junior College before transferring to the University of Michigan.  After graduating in 1943 with a degree in Physical Education, she enlisted in the Women's Army Corps serving in World War II  at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver where she received training in physical therapy; she ended her time in the military at The Presidio in San Francisco. 

After the war, she began a career as a physical therapist in Bismarck, North Dakota traveling the state.  She spent several years in the 1950’s working with polio victims in Boston before moving to Chicago to work with Dr. Meyer Pearlstein treating cerebral palsy.  In the 1950’s she returned to school for a degree in Occupational Therapy from Western Michigan University.  After receiving her OT degree, she moved back to Grand Rapids and directed the occupational therapy program at the Michigan Veteran’s Home. 

She returned to the University of Michigan and in 1965 received her Master of Public Health degree in Health Behavior and Health Management, which provided her new professional career opportunities, first in Cincinnati and then at the State University of New York at Buffalo where she taught orthotics and prosthetics.  After several winters of too much snow, she accepted the position of Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where she contributed to a chapter on “Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation” writing on the splinting of the wrist for the anthology Rheumatoid Arthritis: Etiology•Diagnosis•Management

 

Her final career move was to Wilmington, North Carolina working for the New Hanover County Health Department. She retired in Wilmington and has remained a proud resident.