General Contact Info

Steering Committee members come from all over the Bay Area. We would be most happy to assist OTs working in mental health in any way we can. We know some OTs work alone in one-person departments, and we are available to discuss questions and issues. Please feel free to contact us.

POTAC Steering Committee

POTAC Steering Committee Bios

Lynne Andonian, MID, OTR/L

Assistant Professor Lynne Andonian, MID, OTR/L is on faculty at San José State University in the Department of Occupational Therapy. She earned a BS in Occupational Therapy from Boston University and a Master’s degree in Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in Organizational Systems at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in San Francisco. Her clinical experience is primarily in mental health in a variety of settings, and she has also worked abroad with people with disabilities in Zambia and Uganda. Lynne has presented nationally and internationally on her research interests that include action research, utilizing design to promote wellness, community programs, and international health care delivery issues.

Eileen Auerbach, MS, OTR/L

Eileen Auerbach is a founding member of POTAC and currently the chair of the Steering Committee. She received her Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy at the University of Minnesota in 1964. More recently, she earned an Advanced Practice Master of Science in Occupational Therapy at San José State University in December 2001. Prior to her retirement in July 2008, Eileen was the senior occupational therapist in an assertive community treatment center in San Francisco’s Mission District: Mission ACT. Eileen started out in OT working in both medical surgery and psychiatry in a general hospital in St. Paul for five years. When she moved to Chicago, she worked at Illinois State Psychiatric Institute (ISPI), the state teaching and research hospital, for two years. Finally she came to San Francisco in 1969, working at Mission Day Treatment Center, which morphed into Mission ACT in 1997. At her job she was primarily a mental health case manager; secondarily an employment specialist; and next an occupational therapist. All her duties called for the use of OT skills. Eileen’s main interest was in helping clients find, get and retain jobs. Her master’s thesis project was a qualitative study seeking to find out the components contributing to successful long term employment for the seriously mentally ill. She has published and presented extensively on this and other topics over the years.

M. Terry Bowman, OTR/L

M. Terry Bowman, OTR/L, received her BS in occupational therapy with a psychology minor from San José State University (SJSU) in 1995. At SJSU she was co-valedictorian at the OT convocation, received a Diversity Enhancement Award from the Dean as well as a few scholarships. She has been a member of the POTAC Steering Committee since 1998, serving in various roles including editor of the POTAC Newsletter and coordinator of the Friday Forum. Terry has made formal presentations and has written articles at the state and chapter level of OTAC, and she worked as a consultant to dozens of doctors during a retreat. In 2006, she moved to England and works for St. Andrew’s Healthcare (SAH) as a Senior OT. Areas of interest include medium and low secure settings, forensics, diversity, spirituality, sexual health, journaling, humor, and supervision of interns and students of various disciplines.

Amy Brokering, OTR/L

Amy Brokering received her BS in Occupational Therapy with a minor in Psychology from Dominican University in 2004. Amy completed her mental health internships at Santa Rosa Memorial’s partial hospitalization program and at Mission ACT. Previously, Amy had a long career in the publishing industry as a production and graphic design manager. Current areas of interest include health issues of older adults, expressive therapy, grief and loss issues, and spirituality. Contact Amy at potacinfo@yahoo.com with any job listings or event announcements to be e-mailed to POTAC’s member list.

Beth Ching, M.Ed., OTR/L

Beth Ching has been an occupational therapist for almost 25 years (practicing in both California and Texas). As a practitioner, she has primarily treated clients with mental health issues and people with brain injuries. Beth has also been an educator for 15 years, currently serving as an Assistant Professor and Academic Fieldwork Coordinator for Level I, Master of OT Students, at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, where she teaches Foundations of OT, Health Care Industry, Introduction to Fieldwork, and also assists in the Psychosocial Dysfunction course. Her particular areas of interest include cultural competency, learning styles, adult education, and creative arts as therapeutic media. In the early years of POTAC, Beth presented on the use of origami and poetry as expressive therapeutic media; she has also presented on multicultural issues in Texas and California. Her master’s thesis was on “Learning Styles among OTA Students of Diverse Ethnicities.”

Jane Dressler, J.D., OTR/L

After 20 years of practicing occupational therapy in mental health settings Jane Dressler went to law school to be an advocate for people with mental illness. After 6 years of practicing law, Jane missed the culture of occupational therapy and returned to the OT field. She is currently teaching at San José State University and is OTAC’s Government Affairs Committee Co-Chair. Jane has published on the topics of OT in the forensic system and client centered care. Her special interest is mental health practice and advocacy.

Karen Leigh, MS, OTR/L

Karen Leigh earned her MS in Occupational Therapy in 2005 from San Jose State University. Following the successful completion of her final Level II internship at Mission ACT under the guidance of Eileen Auerbach, MS OTR/L, it became evident that Psychiatric Occupational Therapy was indeed Karen’s calling. Karen, however, recognizing the breadth of her OT education, was adamant about initiating employment in the Physical Disabilities arena before segueing into psych. After two years in a skilled nursing facility, Karen decided it was time and obtained two newly developed psychiatric OT positions at the SFVAMC. There, she is responsible for delivering OT services in the Social Focus Cohort within the nursing home as well as in the Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center, an outpatient psychiatric program. Karen is most passionate about community re-integration where she had the opportunity to facilitate the development or recovery of significant roles within the greater community.

Anne MacRae, Ph.D., OTR/L

Dr. Anne MacRae has presented over 100 professional workshops, nationally and internationally, and is the author of numerous publications. She has supervised the San Jose State University psychosocial occupational therapy clinic for 20 years, in addition to teaching courses in theory and practice, both from a psychosocial and generalist perspective, as well as courses in cultural diversity. Her other clinical experience includes in-patient acute psychiatry, partial hospitalization programs and home health care. Her current research and scholarly interests include cultural diversity, international OT, health and social issues of the older adult, client centered models of treatment, community mental health and functional deficits of psychiatric symptoms. Anne is currently serving her third term on the editorial board of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy and has recently completed the second edition of the co-authored textbook, Psychosocial Occupational Therapy: A Clinical Practice.

Ruth Ramsey, Ed.D., OTR/L

POTAC co-founder Dr. Ruth Ramsey received her MS degree in occupational therapy from San Jose State University, and has been an occupational therapist since 1985. Her clinical work has been primarily in the area of mental health with adults, adolescents, and seniors. She is the founding director and chair of the occupational therapy program at Dominican University of California, where she teaches research, program development, and mentors student research projects. Her doctoral studies were in education at the University of San Francisco. Her current research interests include promoting healthy aging, community-based practice in occupational therapy, and innovative approaches to health professions education. Ruth recently completed a three-year term on the Commission on Practice for the American Occupational Therapy Association and she presents frequently at state and national conferences.

Barbara Rodrigues, MS, OTR/L

Barbara Rodrigues has been working in OT since 1984, specializing in mental health. She has worked with children, adolescents, and adults, and is currently working on the only inpatient psychiatric unit in Santa Cruz, a 28-bed locked unit for adults. She finished her advanced degree with the San José State University distance-learning program and completed an outcomes study with a sample of clients treated at Dominican. Most recently she has been working in applying the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework into the initial OT evaluation with upcoming changes to the daily documentation expected. Dominican Hospital is moving to computerized documentation, currently in clinical trials on some units, and Barbara would be very interested in talking with other psychiatric OTs about the application of the OTPF into practice or computerized documentation. For students interested in conducting research, she finds Dominican Hospital’s IRB easy to work and she welcomes collaboration.