Occupational Therapy Professor Named Teacher of the Year
Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., president of The University of Scranton (right), congratulates Marlene J. Morgan, Ed.D., assistant professor of occupational therapy, in being selected as Teacher of the Year by Scranton’s Class of 2010.
Marlene J. Morgan, Ed.D., assistant professor of occupational therapy, has been named Teacher of the Year by The University of Scranton’s Class of 2010.
The award honors a faculty member who maintains high standards of academic excellence and fairness, and through enthusiasm and dedication, inspires the interest of students in a field of education. The award was instituted by the academic support committee of the University’s Faculty Senate in 1996.
A resident of Avoca, Morgan was a founding member of Scranton’s Department of Occupational Therapy in the late 1990s, when the department received initial accreditation. In 2005, she returned to the Jesuit university and was named the program’s director in 2006. She was granted tenure in the fall of 2009.
At The University of Scranton, Morgan currently teaches geriatrics and physical rehabilitation practice and research. She also spends time mentoring future occupational therapists in the process of evidence-based practice and research methods.
Morgan has presented and published work both nationally and internationally. She co-authored The Safe Home Checkout: Easy Assessment/Simple Solutions and is the co-editor of A Practitioner’s Guide to Clinical Occupational Therapy. She is also a member of the American Occupational Therapy Association and the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association.
Committed to international service, she traveled to Mexico in 2007 as part of Scranton’s Project Guadalajara that included a research team of 15 occupational therapy students who worked with CIRIAC, a private, non-profit civic organization, to provide education, rehabilitation and vocational services to individuals with cerebral palsy. They also provided services to pediatric clients and visited rehabilitation facilities and marginalized communities on the outskirts of Guadalajara.
Morgan brought more than 25 years of experience in both the academic and clinical field with her to The University of Scranton. She held a number of academic positions including appointments at Temple University in Philadelphia, and Rush University in Chicago, Ill. Her clinical experience includes patient care and administrative responsibilities at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and The Rush System for Health in Chicago, Ill., and at The Children’s Seashore House in Atlantic City, N.J.
Morgan received a bachelor of science in biology from The Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree in occupational therapy from Texas Women’s University, Denton, Texas, and a doctorate in educational administration and policy studies from Temple University.
