About David Crandall

To become an Occupational Therapist in the United States one must pass the NBCOT board exam. Occupational Therapist Registered (OTR) candidates must graduate with an entry-level occupational therapy degree from an ACOTE®-accredited occupational therapy program. For my undergraduate I majored in Pre-Health Kinesiology and Minored in Psychology at Vanguard University in Southern California. I then completed my Masters of Occupational Therapy at Loma Linda University.

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As a teenager I worked to save up an purchase my own physical copy of the Great Books of the Western World set by Encyclopedia Brittanica. I poured hours over the Syntopicon fascinated by how the 102 ideas, along with their topics, were sorted out by an intensive reading and rereading of the books by a sizable staff of scholars. I was inspired by the authors I was reading and hoped that one day I too would be able to find a career where I myself could add to this “Great Conversation”.

In edition to being a book nerd I was also consistently involved in Athletics however I grew very quickly as a child and was 6 foot tall by eighth grade. My bones grew faster than my muscles and tendons could adapt to. I was given a variety of diagnosis throughout my childhood from Osgood-Schlatter to Thoracic outlet syndrome. Despite these setbacks I continued to engage in my go to sports, soccer, football and skateboarding. I was quite good at athletics often making the varsity team and first string for my local school teams however with these sports also came injuries. I ended up on crutches so much throughout Elementary school and Jr. High that I was given nickname crutch Crandall. My crutches grew with me they were always there when I needed them but damn if I didn’t hate having to use them…. It’s very difficulty to carry a heavy backpack of books while managing a master lock. I began to notice over the years that there were some Physical Therapist that really took the time to get to know me, know my story, know what was important to me. The acklowedged the pain I was in while paving a path that lead to me towards my return to meaningful participation. … There were also some that seemed to treat me like just the 3:30pm appointment where it was all I could do to seem to try to get their attention away from a computer to help me out. I really admired the prior Physical Therapist and by my Jr year of highschool was determined that I would go to school to become a PT myself. It was not until undergraduate when I was recieving treatment from a CHT that I learned about Occupational Therapy. Throughout our conversations this therapist opened my eyes to the diverse scope of practice that Occupational Therapy held and she was convinced that I was destined to become an Occupational Therapist.

As I explored the career I became abslutely enamored by the profession. There is a beautiful tapestry of different Occupatioanl Therapists. Therapists working on Global Health Initiatives, Threapist developing community health initiatives, Occupatioanl Therapists in the schools, hospitals and in the homes. Here was a discipline that has existed for over one hundred years that touched on all the things I loved. I knew that going into this field I would find a niche that I would find fulfilling.

Now, several years into practicing I am cemented in the view that Great Conversations that has been taking place in the Occupational Sciences stands as one of humanity’s most distinguished responses to the challenges we face at the personal, local, national, and global levels.