Deirdre R. Dawson

Deirdre R. Dawson, Professor Emeritus, Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy; Senior Scientist Emeritus, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation (UBC), an MSc in Epidemiology (UoT) and a PhD in Psychology (UoT). She was inducted into the AOTF Academy of Research in 2014, received the Mitchell Rosenthal Award from the ACRM in 2015, and has been keynote speaker at the University of British Columbia (2023), Texas Women’s University (2020) and Miguel Hernandez University, Spain (2019). In 2015, she received the UoT Faculty of Medicine Award for Continuing Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship.

Areas of Research / Educational Scholarship

Dr. Dawson’s research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation, Quebec Rehabilitation Research Network and the Canadian Partnership in Stroke Recovery. Her scholarship focuses on understanding how cognitive processes in acquired brain disorders and aging affect people’s abilities to be autonomous in community living and on developing and evaluating effective interventions that promote participation in every-day life.