Roseann C. Schaaf, PhD., OTR/L, FAOTA

Dr. Roseann Schaaf is Director of the Jefferson Autism Center of Excellence and Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy Jefferson College of Rehabilitation Sciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.  She is also faculty in Jefferson’s Farber Institute for Neurosciences and Research Director for CLASI.  Dr. Schaaf has a PhD in Neuroscience, a Master Degree in Education and a Bachelor Degree in Occupational Therapy.  She has devoted her career to the study of sensory features in children with autism and other neurodevelopmental condition with the goal of improving the lives of these children and their families.  The foci of her research is on the neural mechanisms of sensory features and developing and testing assessments and interventions that address sensory features to enhance function and participation in daily activities.  She has received over $7 million dollars of funding in the past few years from the National Institute of Health, PCORI, the New Jersey Autism Research Program, the Eagles Autism Foundation and the Nancy Lurie Marks Foundation.   Dr. Schaaf is the author of 6 books and over 100 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts. She has mentored dozens of students whose thesis or capstone projects range from clinical applications to neuroscience.  In collaboration with Dr. Zoe Mailloux, Dr. Schaaf and her team at Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Jersey (Drs. Joanne Hunt, Elke vanHoodonk, Patti Faller; and Regina Freeman and Donna Kelly) manualized Ayres Sensory Integration Intervention and then conducted studies to evaluate its outcomes.  They developed the Data Driven Decision Making Approach to guide therapist’s clinical reasoning as part of this work.  Dr. Schaaf’s goals are to continue to generate evidence to support occupational therapy using Ayres Sensory integration, help make this intervention accessible to all children and families who can benefit from it and to see it gain prominence and respect across the world.