Monica Clark

Education

Dr. Monica S. Clark is an Assistant Professor for the Doctorate in Occupational Therapy program. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a double minor in biology and art from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, TX in 2004. Two years later, she earned her Master’s in Occupational Therapy from Texas Woman’s University in Dallas, TX. After eight years of clinical experience, she went back to Texas Woman’s University for the inaugural class of their Doctorate in Occupational Therapy program. She earned this degree in 2016 with a focus on Stroke Rehabilitation.  

Clinical Experience

With over 15 years of clinical experience, Dr. Clark has worked in a variety of settings: acute care, inpatient and outpatient mental health, outpatient adults and pediatrics, skilled nursing, home health, and inpatient rehab. However, her niche is working with the acute neurology population. Early in her career, she worked as a travel therapist where she worked in Seattle, WA, Machias, ME, and San Antonio, TX. This made her flexible and knowledgeable about a variety of payment systems, the effect of regional culture on therapy goals, and alternative methods of treatment.

Additionally, she started numerous occupation-based and psychosocial programs at a local hospital, including vision, cardiac, oncology, and antepartum programs. She opened an inpatient rehab during the midst of the COVID pandemic, which was ranked in the top 10% of the U.S. for quality within 3 months. It is currently one of the top rehabilitation centers in San Antonio.

Teaching Experience

Demonstrating her commitment to the professional development of others, Dr. Clark has supervised more than 20 fieldwork students in the clinical setting, including doctoral capstone students. She started a mentorship program for new graduates and continues to mentor past students and team members. She has also developed an on-site clinical fieldwork program to ensure flexibility based on student learning styles. 

As previous adjunct faculty for 6 years, she has taught a multitude of classes to include professional communication, theory development, neurology lab, adult service delivery, OT process, and scholarly inquiry. Dr. Clark was nominated by past students and rewarded the Clinical Educator of the Year Award from the Texas Occupational Therapy Association for her enthusiasm for growing and mentoring students. Additionally, she has presented at numerous conferences on leadership and management techniques as well as occupation-based program development. She is the founding faculty for building the OTD program's curriculum and design.

Research

Using Narratives in OT Treatment, the title of her master’s thesis, was her first endeavor into scholarly inquiry. Using music with the stroke population, creation of occupation-based programs in the acute setting, and increasing the visibility of occupational therapy are several of Dr. Clark’s other research interests. She is in the process of publishing an article about creating an occupation-based Antepartum program based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act model as well as the development of a therapy protocol for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), which was crucial to the survival of numerous COVID+ clients.

Community Involvement

Currently, Dr. Clark is the chair for the Alamo South District of the Texas Occupational Therapy Association where she serves the occupational therapy community in South Texas. She serves as a consultant to Hutch Farms, a nature therapy program for children with trauma. Recently, she became the UIW representative for the San Antonio Special Olympics Committee. Finally, she founded the Occupational Therapy Benevolence Endowment, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping OT practitioners and students after a significant life event.

• Bachelor's degree in psychology with a double minor in biology and art from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, TX in 2004
• Master's in Occupational Therapy from Texas Woman's University in Dallas, TX
• Texas Woman's University for the inaugural class of their Doctorate in Occupational Therapy program with a focus on Stroke Rehabilitation in 2016