Kristie Patten, PhD, OT/L, FAOTA, is Vice Dean of Academic Affairs at NYU Steinhardt and Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy. Dr. Patten’s research focuses on utilizing a strength-based paradigm, in partnership with stakeholders, to understand the impact of our biases and practices on quality of life and well being with a focus on interventions in inclusive settings. Dr. Patten has received over $20 million dollars in external funding for her research and programs.
Dr. Patten is the Principal Investigator of the NYU Steinhardt's ASD Nest Program, an inclusive program for children and adolescents with autism in the New York City Department of Education, the largest inclusion program in the country, grounded in strength based practices. She is Co-PI of an NSF grant entitled, “Developing Abilities and Knowledge for Careers in Design and Engineering for Students on the Autism Spectrum by Scaling Up Making Experiences” which is an expansion of an earlier NSF grant entitled "IDEAS: Inventing, Designing and Engineering on the Autism Spectrum".
These projects leverage strengths and interests of 5th through 12th grade students on the spectrum to develop social competence and potential career pathways. Dr. Patten has published and presented nationally and internationally on topics related to examining the efficacy of public school inclusion models and viewing autism from a strength-based or abilities-based model. She was awarded the 2022 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship, by the American Occupational Therapy Association, the highest academic award in the profession for her work entitled "Finding our Strengths: Recognizing our Professional Bias and Interrogating Systems".
