• Professor, Occupational Therapy

Baum

• B.S. in Occupational Therapy at University of Kansas, Lawrence
• M.A. in Health Management at Webster University, St. Louis
• Ph.D. in Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis

Currently, Baum is working with the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the School of Medicine to identify the relationship of vision and continued independence at home. She also serves as a principal investigator (along with Alex Dromerick, MD) on the McDonnell Science Foundation project "Improving Cognitive Performance: Cognition, Neurobiological Mechanisms, Treatment, and Community Reintegration" which is an interdisciplinary study that aims to strengthen rehabilitation approaches to improve the lives of person's with cognitive loss. This project includes scientists from neurobiology, neuroradiology, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, neurology, occupational therapy, education and philosophy.

Carolyn Baum

Baum has served as the President of the American Occupational Therapy Association and President of the National Board of Certification of Occupational Therapy and has received the top two honors of the American Occupational Therapy Association. In 1981, she delivered the Eleanor Clarke Slagel Lectureship, and in 1983, she received the Award of Merit.

Baum has been involved in two major rehabilitation policy initiatives. She served on the National Institute of Health committee that wrote the rehabilitation plan for Congress that implemented the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research. She also served on The Institute of Medicine committee that wrote the report, Enabling America for Congress, which subsequently was published as a book.

She currently is Editor of the OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health.

Baum, along with her colleague and friend Charles Christiansen, has authored and edited the text, Occupational Therapy: Enabling Function and Well-Being. Their book is used in occupational therapy curriculums all over the world. She also recently co-authored, Measuring Occupational Performance, with Mary Law (McMaster Univ, Canada) and Winnifred Dunn (University of Kansas). Her work is included in major texts focusing on disability issues, client-centered care, and measurement.