Dr. Zesarae Bodie

Dr. Zesarae Bodie, an occupational therapist with broad experience in geriatric care, has joined the Katz School's entry-level Occupational Therapy Doctorate program as a clinical assistant professor. “We are very excited and grateful to have Zesarae join our inaugural faculty where she’ll have the opportunity to merge her two passions—education and occupational therapy,” said Dr. Paul Russo, Dean of the Katz School. “We look forward to her sharing her knowledge and experiences with a new generation of therapists, helping them identify their own areas of interest and find their place within the world of rehabilitation therapy.” During her career, Zesarae has worked with patients of all ages. An occupational therapist with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, she manages a caseload of approximately 30 patients a week, covering the west side of Manhattan, evaluating and implementing plans of care for patients in their homes in order to improve their quality of life and functional independence. During the height of the COVID outbreak in New York City, she was on the front lines working with patients infected by the virus, as well as others, to ensure that they continued to receive care. In addition to the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, she is an occupational therapist with the Northside Center for Child Development Services where she works with preschool students in accordance with their established IEPs to improve their handwriting, bilateral coordination, and visual-perceptual and visual motor skills. Prior to that, she worked for the Duke University Health System, developing plans of care for patients during and after their hospital stays. Zesarae holds doctoral and master’s degrees in occupational therapy from the University of Saint Augustine for the Health Sciences, and a master’s degree in public health from Florida A&M University. For more information about the Occupational Therapy Doctorate, visit https://bit.ly/3faPOze.