Occupational Therapy Doctorate - Keck Graduate Institute

What people do every day matters. Occupational therapists empower clients of all ages to flourish through participating in daily life activities. KGI’s Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) program in Claremont, CA will prepare graduates as innovative leaders within the occupational therapy field. Expected to enroll in fall 2022, the three-year program will showcase active-learning, hands-on lab and fieldwork experiences, and team collaboration that will prepare students to become resourceful, ethical, and agile problem solvers.

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Why KGI's OTD Program?

Emphasis on Lifestyle Medicine

As a curricular thread, principles and practices of lifestyle medicine will be interwoven into courses across the OTD program preparing students to be champions for lifestyle changes to improve health and well-being.

Collaboration with Medical Device Engineering Program

OTD students will have the opportunity to learn basic design and engineering principles and work with students on creating device solutions to promote participation in daily life activities.

Range of Electives

We understand occupational therapy is a broad profession. KGI OTD students will have the ability to take elective courses in a range of topics to build knowledge and experience in a specific area of practice or clinical skill set.

Ardmore Institute of Health Grant Supports Lifestyle Medicine in KGI’s Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program

The Ardmore Institute of Health (AIH) has awarded a grant to Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) to create a lifestyle medicine and occupational therapy integrated curriculum in support of the launch of KGI’s developing Occupational Therapy...

KGI OTD Founding Program Director Christy Billock Joins Advisory Boards for CHERP and APEX-K

Christy Billock, Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) Professor and Founding Program Director of the Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) program, has recently joined two advisory boards for Claremont Home Energy Retrofit Project (CHERP) and neuro-rehabilitation biotech company...

Billock Granted Award of Excellence from the Occupational Therapy Association of California

Christy Billock, Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) Professor and Founding Program Director of the Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) program, was recently granted the Award of Excellence from the Occupational Therapy Association of California. The award recognizes...

Is Occupational Therapy a Good Career?

Occupational therapists are highly educated medical professionals who possess advanced knowledge of physical, mental, and behavioral therapy. Practitioners work with patients who have limited self-care abilities across a number of areas. The end goal of...

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About the Program

We believe in occupational therapy’s transformative power both in current practice settings and in areas where occupational therapy is not yet established. KGI’s OTD program envisions the innovative potential for therapeutically utilizing occupation to promote and sustain health, wellbeing, participation, and inclusion to meet a wide range of ever-changing, real-world needs.

Our mission is to educate future occupational therapists to meet the needs of individuals, communities, and populations for meaningful participation in daily life activities through a transformative and dynamic educational process. Students will learn to work with people of all ages and ability levels in client-centered, culturally responsive ways.

The transformative educational process of learning to “think like an OT” will be fueled by dynamic teaching, active learning, and collaboration with occupational therapy classmates and students from other professional programs and disciplines. The program will provide a solid foundation in the scholarship of practice where professional thinking necessarily utilizes evidence and theory to meet clients’ needs for optimizing occupational performance and participation.

We will teach our students to think outside of the box. KGI’s OTD students will consider innovative possibilities for the future of practice where pioneering new approaches to occupational therapy care will be valued in the marketplace to meet the ever-changing needs of our world.

The most powerful tool we can use in occupational therapy is ourselves. KGI’s OTD program will nurture students’ growth as compassionate, ethical practitioners who act with authenticity and integrity in every step of the occupational therapy process.

Accreditation Process

KGI’s entry-level occupational therapy doctoral degree program has applied for accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). KGI’s offering of an OTD program is also subject to approval from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

Accreditation Process

Program Leadership

Christy Billock was hired on September 20, 2019 as the Founding Program Director of the entry-level Occupational Therapy Doctorate program at Keck Graduate Institute.

Learn more about Christy