Karen Atler, M.S., OTR
Assistant Professor

Karen Atler joined the CSU OT faculty in 2000, bringing a variety of teaching experiences from several universities. Her clinical practice has focused on services to adults and older adults in acute, rehab and home based programs. Currently she teaches courses related to occupation, neurobehavioral approaches for adults, and Level I fieldwork with older adults. Karen is dedicated to providing active learning experiences that encourage students to articulate their clinical reasoning, helping to prepare them to practice in complex and changing environments. Recently she has been involved in designing, implementing and evaluating service learning and its impact on both students and the community. Other areas of research and service to the profession have focused on fieldwork, clinical reasoning and professional development of students.

Karen co-led the development and evaluation of the Fieldwork Performance Evaluations for the Occupational Therapy Assistant Student and the Occupational Therapy Student; and has published materials to support the use of the fieldwork evaluations.

Over her 25 years as an occupational therapist, Karen has been dedicated to supporting the professional development of both students and practitioners. She has mentored, served in professional and community organizations and provided over 50 presentations at the local, state and national level.

Recently accepted into an interdisciplinary doctoral program, Karen will focus her studies on occupational well-being and older adults. She will work towards evaluating interventions designed to support older adults' health and well-being, focusing on measuring changes at the occupation level.

Away from work, Karen enjoys the outdoors, biking, cooking, cross-stitching and spending time with family and friends (especially kids!).