Beth Elenko, PhD, OTR/L, BCP, CLA, FAOTA

Position

Assistant Editor

Files

Biography

Dr. Beth Elenko, PhD, OTR/L, BCP, CLA, FAOTA, is an associate professor and admissions coordinator at New York Institute of Technology and recognized as a fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association. She received her entry-level occupational therapy (OT) degree from Eastern Michigan University in 1987 and her advanced master’s (1995) and doctoral degree from New York University in applied research in OT in 2000. This is where her clinical, academic, and scholarly journey began to intertwine. Dr. Elenko has worked extensively in the pediatrics population from the NICU to school-based practice, but most notably with the birth to 3 years of age population. She believes this time is critical for occupational therapists to engage with young children and their families and impact them on a positive trajectory for their future while providing family-centered best practice strategies in Early Intervention (EI). She works extensively to help progress the academic world to train professionals effectively to provide effective EI practice and has been on a mission to disseminate knowledge of these crucial practices into the OT profession, in addition to teaching research and evidence-based practices. She promotes family-centered best practices as the root and obvious intervention model to apply to infants, young children, and their families. However, she believes we ineffectively teach these topics in our entry-level education. We also do not train and support our occupational therapists to learn more once they are practicing. Dr. Elenko’s research interests include understanding both the therapist and families’ perspectives to improve and provide effective service delivery in EI, as well as examining the leadership in OT, primary care services in OT, and sensory processing strategies.