Lauren Holahan, PhD, OT/L

Lauren Holahan, PhD, OT/L has 20+ yrs experience in school-based practice as an OT, a district administrator, and a statewide consultant for OT. She currently serves as Coordinator for State Systemic Improvement Plan (Indicator 17), School Mental Health & Medicaid with the NC Department of Public Instruction. She also served as the Chair of NC Board of Occupational Therapy from 2008 to 2012.

• School-based occupational therapy
• School mental health
• Mealtime participation
• Specially designed instruction
• Addressing written expression difficulties
• Sensory processing issues affecting school participation
• Study Skill-Building for Students with Attention Issues
• Group and classroom interventions
• Movement-based learning
• Ethics in special education
• School-based Medicaid cost recovery

• “Specially Designed Instruction: A Single, Integrated System within a Multi-tiered System of Support” Council for Exceptional Children 2019 Convention, Indianapolis, IA (February 1, 2019); invited
• “Medicaid Cost Recovery in Schools” AOTA Schools Specialty Conference, Orlando, FL, (December 1, 2017); invited
• “Policy and Practice: Supporting Systems Change” AOTA Schools Specialty Conference, Orlando, FL, (December 2, 2017); invited
• “IEP Development and Service Documentation.” National Alliance on Medicaid in Education, 15th Annual Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. (October 16, 2017); invited
• “Medicaid in Schools” AOTA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, (April 7, 2016); invited
• “Implementation Science: Moving Practitioners and Programs Forward” AOTA Annual Conference, Nashville, TN, (April 16, 2015); invited

• Frolek Clark, G., & Holahan, L. (2015). Medicaid FAQ for school occupational therapy practitioners. OT Practice, 20(20), 18–20.
• Holahan, L. (2014). Quality in doing: Competence and occupation. Journal of Occupational Science, 21, 473-487.
• Holahan, L., Burton, S., Laverdure, P., & Muhlenhaupt, M. (2013). Guidance for performance evaluation of school occupational therapists. Bethseda, MD: AOTA Press. 1-84.
• Johnson, T., Busby-Whitehead, J., Ashford-Works, C., Clarke, M., Fowler [Holahan], L.,Williams, M. (1998). Promoting help-seeking behavior for urinary incontinence. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 17, 1998, 419-441.
• Coleman, L., Fowler [Holahan], L., Willliams, M. (1995). Use of unproven therapies by people with Alzheimer’s Disease. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 43, 747-750.

Book Chapters

• Holahan, L. (2019). Medicaid Cost Recovery in Schools. In, Frolek-Clark, G. and Chandler, B (Eds.) Best Practices in School Occupational Therapy, 2nd Edition.
• Holahan, L., Ray, L., and Dickie, V. (2012). A transactional perspective on a consulting practice. In Cutchin, M. and Dickie, V. (Eds.). Transactional Perspectives on Occupation: 133-143.