Danielle Evans

We spoke with Daniel who is an incredibly compassionate, Enthusiastic, down to earth, articulate and genuine woman who inspired us with her story. Danielle shared that she began working in occupational therapy in 1994, eventually becoming the director of occupational therapy at a hospital where she managed approximately 50 therapists. She later transitioned to working in schools for the past 20 years.

Danielle shared her work as a specialist who performs standardized evaluations of children's sensory integration, fine motor skills, visual motor skills, and activities of daily living skills. She works to treat children with diagnoses including autism, Down syndrome, and developmental delays. Danielle also discussed developing a program called Hands-On Success for Kids, which is a multi-faceted treatment kit focusing on fine motor skills using a sensory integrative approach for kindergarten-age children, including activities like learning letters and scissor skills.

When asked about Danielle's Most notable and proudest achievements, she highlighted transitioning from working with adults to pediatrics and becoming an independent contractor after leaving a school position due to spine surgery. She outlined how this transition allowed her to develop and take their program into schools while remaining relevant in her field.

Daniel performs standardized evaluations on children looking at their sensory integration abilities, fine motor skills, visual motor skills, and their activities for daily living skills. She also treats children with many types of diagnosis and is extremely proud of the rewarding experience she has working day by day in support of these amazing children and their families to provide resources and stability in their lives. When Danielle faced a setback of needing spinal surgery, she had to leave her position at the school but wanted to remain relevant and this was an extremely pivotal moment for her being able to branch out on her own and develop this program which has been published and is an extreme source of pride of Danielle's.


Danielle is looking forward to being able to connect with other amazing women, and her expertise guide those entering her industry and to be inspired by each other. She is also looking forward to sharing her story in hopes of inspiring the next generation and raising awareness for her ailment, as well as sharing more detail about her beautiful life and what she's looking forward to as her journey continues.
Current Career Overview:

• Provide school-based occupational therapy services as an independent contractor across multiple districts.
• Conduct evaluations, develop treatment plans, and implement interventions for children with diverse needs.
• Collaborate with teachers, parents, and multidisciplinary teams to support student success.
• Ensure compliance with IEP goals and district guidelines.
• Deliver teletherapy and remote consultations to provide accessible occupational therapy services.

Publication:

Hands on Success for Kids
Oct 4, 2024

"Hands on Success for kids" is a program I designed to foster fine motor and visual motor development in preschool, kindergarten, and children requiring specialized assistance. The kit employs sensory motor strategies and includes all required materials. Please reach out to me for additional information. Danielle Evans, OTR/L

My husband Thomas has always made it a point to recognize that it is so important for me to have my own degree and profession that no one can take away from you. He encouraged me to have that independence and to have that for myself, that sense of pride, that fulfillment. He's been my biggest champion and supporter, especially going through what I'm going through right now with this disease. Having your own education and career is something no one can take from you, and that independence has been invaluable.

I think it's a wonderful, wonderful field that you can go into so many different aspects of. You can work with adults with physical disabilities, you could work with children with physical disabilities and intellectual disabilities, and there's also psychiatric assistance as well. That's actually where occupational therapy began many years ago after World War II, when soldiers returned home and needed some sort of almost recreational therapy. It was really about turning their lives into something that was more purposeful. You could really make it whatever you want it to be. It's incredibly rewarding to be part of this type of support for others and watch people benefit from what you provide them on a day-to-day basis.

Danielle will be adding details regarding what has inspired her throughout her career and life, she will touch on additional detail regarding the people who have impacted her journey and that have encouraged or inspired her. She will also highlight things that bring her joy including her interest and hobbies if she would like to delve into more detail. She will add how she would like to connect with our incredible network of women, how she would like to inspire our readers, how she would like to connect for mentorship and to help guide other young women entering her industry As well as any other information regarding her beautiful story that she would like to share as the next chapter of her story continues to be written.

In my downtime, I find it so therapeutic to paint. I also love gardening and cooking. Having three children who are older now, my oldest is graduating college at 22, I have a soon-to-be 20-year-old, and my youngest is graduating high school, I've had to explore my own interests as they don't need me as much. My career has afforded me the ability to raise a family as well, and I'm ever grateful for my blessings. Since I had a spinal injury that developed into a very rare disease called adhesive arachnoiditis, where the nerves are adhered to the thecal sac inside my central nervous system down at the L5-S1 and L4, I would love to raise awareness about that disease itself. The Tennant Foundation, run by Dr. Forrest Tennant, was the first to really recognize this disease and bring it to the forefront. With the amount of interventional-type procedures being done, including spinal injections and epidurals, more and more spine injuries are occurring, and he's really been at the forefront in developing different treatment methods for it.