The Mary J. Bridle Award carries real weight in the occupational therapy research community. It is reserved for Pi Theta Epsilon members conducting their first formal research project in the field, and it comes with more than funding. Recipients have their manuscript reviewed by experts in occupational therapy research and are considered for publication in OTJR: Occupational Therapy Journal of Research — one of the field’s leading peer-reviewed journals. That combination of financial support and a direct line to publication is what makes the award a meaningful marker of a researcher’s early work.
The list of past recipients reflects that standard. Cortney Leverentz of Creighton University won in 2024 for a telehealth pilot study aimed at improving occupational performance in older adults. Sarah Synek, also of Creighton, was recognized in 2023 for a systematic review examining upper extremity orthotic interventions for stroke patients. In 2022, Clarissa Stanhope of Rush University in Chicago received the award for research on accessible tourism and disability advocacy. And in 2021, Keri Kamphoff of the University of South Dakota was honored for work addressing quality-of-life issues for people living with lymphedema. Hanson’s 2026 receipt places Rocky Mountain College’s Occupational Therapy Doctorate program alongside Creighton, Rush, and the University of South Dakota in the award’s recipient history — institutions with established, well-known OT research programs.
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Hanson’s research asked a question that had not been fully answered in the occupational therapy literature: why do people choose storytelling as an occupation, and what do they actually get from it? Working with three professional storytellers recruited from storytelling events in Wisconsin, Hanson conducted semi-structured interviews and analyzed the transcripts for recurring patterns. Three themes emerged. Storytelling builds connection between the storyteller, the audience, and mentors. It creates space for emotional and physical expression, including the act of getting into character. And it demands a deliberate creative process, one storytellers keep training and refining over time.
The findings reinforce something occupational therapists already understand intuitively but rarely see studied directly: storytelling is not just entertainment. It is a purposeful, therapeutic occupation that supports identity, self-esteem, and well-being, both for the individual telling the story and for the community receiving it.
“I wanted to look at an occupation that doesn’t get much research attention, even though almost every culture has practiced it for generations,” Hanson said. “Storytelling turned out to be exactly what you’d hope an occupation would be: something that connects people to each other and to themselves.”
