Izel Obermeyer is the Director of the Assistive Technology Program at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, in Valhalla, NY, where she has worked for the past 11 years. She is an occupational therapist who graduated from the University of Pretoria, Vona duToit OT school in 1987. She completed her post professional Master's degree in 2008, and started working on her PhD in 2017. She has worked in South Africa, Namibia, Brazil, Kenya and the USA. She is responsible for the training of school district assistive technology teams and coordinates occupational therapy services in school districts too. She runs executive function groups in schools and recently implemented a Yoga program for Kindergarten students. She is also the coordinator of all graduate level assistive technology courses, which are being taught for masters programs in special education, for a number of colleges in the area. She is involved in the development of smart technology initiatives within WIHD and is an active advocate for assistive technology inclusion in schools. Izel is the project leader for the Multimedia Technology Center at WIHD and has been working on using multimedia for person-centered work as well as instruction for the past 2 years. She often presents papers at conferences, colleges and schools. She recently co-authored a chapter on cognition and executive function in children, for the 3rd edition of the book "Cognition across the life span". She was always actively involved in the professional associations for OT in all the countries she worked and lived in. She is the Past-President of the Namibian OT Association as well as the New York State Occupational Therapy Association (NYSOTA), and the 2006 NYSOTA conference at the United Nations was her brain-child. She is also the past Chairperson of state association presidents at the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). Izel was awarded her Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association and started her PhD studies in 2017.
