On this episode, we are joined by Lisa Michael, the 2025 AAHS Vargas International Hand Therapist Teaching Award recipient. Lisa is an occupational therapist and Certified Hand Therapist who traveled to St. Lucia to share her knowledge and skills in an underserved area. She shares with us what it was like evaluating and treating patients in St Lucia, how she provided education to the local staff and is able to stay connected with them from afar and how support from AAHS made this trip possible.

Lisa Michael (Cyr), OTD, OTR/L, CHT graduated from Colorado State University with a B.S. in Occupational Therapy, then returned to school in 2012 to attain her Clinical Doctorate in Occupational Therapy (OTD). She has been a Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) since 1996, and currently works in an outpatient satellite for Yale New Haven Health Services, helping to rehabilitate people who experience traumatic orthopedic related injuries to their hands, wrists, and elbows. She is adjunct faculty or SCSU.

Lisa is very active in the hand therapy community and is a member of AAHS, ASHT, and AOT. She has lectured both nationally and internationally on various hand therapy topics and has volunteered in 5 missions with the Guatemala Healing Hands Foundation to help treat Guatemalan children with hand or arm injuries. She also participated in professional surgeon/ therapist conferences and assisted with community outreach and teaching local therapists various hand therapy techniques while there.

In 2025, Lisa travelled with the Hand Help team to St. Lucia as the recipient of the AAHS Vargas Award. She treated post-op patients and educated and co-treated patients with the local hospital physiotherapists. She also led an orthosis fabrication and kinisiotape lab for local therapists. Lisa has published a book chapter and authored/ co-authored several peer reviewed journal articles.

In her spare time, Lisa loves to hike with her dog, bike, kayak, and travel.

The views and opinions expressed in the Hands in Motion podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ASHT. Appearance on the podcast does not imply endorsement of any products, services or viewpoints discussed.

On this episode, we are joined by Sarah Doerrer, an occupational therapist and Certified Hand Therapist who is devoting most of her time these days to academia and research. She shares with us how she is connecting with clinicians in the community to collaborate on community-engaged research. We discuss the benefits to these collaborations, but also some of the barriers to clinical research and how to navigate those barriers.

Sarah Doerrer, PhD, OTR/L, CHT, CLT graduated with her Masters in OT in 2001 from Misericordia University and her PhD in OT in 2019 from Nova Southeastern University. She is currently an assistant professor at George Washington University and worked in clinical practice for 22 years. She is a Certified Hand Therapist and Certified Lymphedema Therapist. Dr. Doerrer serves on the Research Division of the American Society of Hand Therapists and is the incoming Research Division chair and serves as the Education Chair for the Capital Hand Therapy Association. She has received two foundation grants for her dissertation research “The Impact of Shoulder Pathology on Individuals with Distal Radius Fracture” and received a grant from the American Hand Foundation for her clinical trial “Impact of Early ADL Participation on Functional Outcomes Post Distal Radius Fracture”. Dr. Doerrer has most recently been awarded the Hand in Hand Grant from AOTF-ASHT-AHTF and the Clinical Research Award from the American Hand Surgery Foundation for her work on post distal radius education. She is also a co-investigator on a Department of Education, Disability Innovation Fund grant. Dr. Doerrer has had multiple publications in the Journal of Hand Therapy and has published two book chapters. She is a reviewer for the Journal of Hand Therapy, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and OT Journal of Research.

The views and opinions expressed in the Hands in Motion podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ASHT. Appearance on the podcast does not imply endorsement of any products, services or viewpoints discussed"

On this episode, we are joined by Saba Kamal, an occupational therapist and Certified Hand Therapist who has taken a special interest in treating patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and hypermobility. She shares with us how patients are diagnosed with EDS or hypermobility and how we as upper extremity therapists can educate these patients on joint protection, stability and lifelong management.

Saba Kamal is an occupational therapist and a Certified Hand Therapist. She graduated from OT School in India and is currently certified to practice in the US, UK and Europe. Saba currently resides and practices as a healthcare entrepreneur and hand and upper extremity therapist in the US. She has over three decades of experience spanning clinical practice, healthcare education and professional leadership. She has delivered talks at national and international conferences, collaborating closely with surgeons and therapists to advance the field of hand and upper extremity rehabilitation.

Saba’s contributions include leadership roles in professional societies (initiated and chaired HTA-CA conferences 2011-2019), the development of innovative treatment approaches, and dedicated mentorship to students and clinicians. Most recently, she sold her successful therapy practices and completed a Healthcare Leadership certificate at Johns Hopkins University. Saba has also written various articles and is the author of Treating Musicians as Athletes available on Amazon and B&N.

In addition to continuing to educate therapists through her Hand-On courses with Advanced Rehab Seminars, Saba is also working on several hand therapy-related inventions aimed at bringing innovative solutions to the market

The views and opinions expressed in the Hands in Motion podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ASHT. Appearance on the podcast does not imply endorsement of any products, services or viewpoints discussed"