Andrea D. Fairman Affiliate Faculty

Biography

Andrea D. Fairman, PhD, MOT, OTR/L, CPRP entered the occupational therapy profession as a Master’s Level OT in 2001 when she became certified and licensed to practice. Now with 20 years+ of clinical experience, she has practiced with both children and adults in a wide variety of clinical settings, including: community mental health, school-based practice, home health, skilled nursing facilities, and in-patient, hospital settings. She presently practices clinically at specialized school called CITE (Center for Individualized Training and Education) located in North Providence, Rhode Island.
   
In addition to these various clinical practice settings, Dr. Fairman has also served in supervisory and administrative positions. These roles have included the oversight in the development and implementation of several community-based programs and also leading the Spina Bifida Association of Western Pennsylvania as their Executive Director prior to entering academia full-time. In these roles she was responsible for grant writing, program development, personnel management, preparation and oversight of budgets, management and reporting to funding agencies and the governing board of directors.
   
Dr. Fairman has over 10 years of experience working full-time in academia. Before earning her PhD in Rehabilitation Science and Certificate in Assistive Technology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013, Dr. Fairman served as the Academic Fieldwork Coordinator (AFWC) and Assistant Professor at Philadelphia University from Jan. 2012 – July 2013. Once Dr. Fairman completed her PhD, she accepted a tenure track position as Assistant Professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, and then moved to MGH Institute of Health Professions (IHP) in Boston, MA, as an Associate Professor in July 2015 - December 2019. She served as the Program Director of a newly developed Occupational Therapy Doctoral (OTD) Program at Slippery Rock University.  Dr. Fairman currently serves as the Capstone Coordinator and Associate Professor of Johnson & Wales University OTD Program in Providence, RI.  She has developed and taught a wide variety of courses reflective of her diverse experiences and skill set.
   
Dr. Fairman also has extensive evidence of scholarship including over 30 publications and numerous professional presentations at international, national, state and local conferences. She is one of the inventors of the Interactive Mobile Health and Rehabilitation (iMHere) system which has been further refined and tested with the support millions of dollars of support provided by grant funding for this research and development over the past 10 years. Dr. Fairman’s research interests are focused on how technology can help to support persons with disabilities and chronic conditions. She has worked extensively with mobile health (mHealth) and technologies to support persons in the home and community settings.