UAB OT alumni are working in many different roles and settings. Read updates from your classmates below, and stay in touch by sharing your news and milestones using the Alumni Class Notes form.
Featured Alumni Story
Haley Veloz and Jason Vice: From OT Students to OT Leaders
December 2025 marked the graduation of UAB’s third cohort of entry-level OTD students, as well as a milestone for two Department of Occupational Therapy faculty. Haley Veloz, (formerly Haley Curry), OTD, OTR/L, and Jason Vice, PhD, OTR/L, SCLV, both graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) MSOT program in December 2015. A decade later, they are preparing future occupational therapists in the classrooms where their own professional journeys began.
Read more: Haley Veloz and Jason Vice: From OT Students to OT Leaders
Fall 2025 Updates
Sarah Blaylock
MSOT, 2009; Low Vision Rehabilitation Graduate Certificate, 2015; PhD in Rehabilitation Science, 2017
Alabama and Honolulu
I am an assistant professor in the OTD program at Hawaii Pacific University, which launched the first OTD program in the state. I live in Alabama and travel to Hawaii for work.
I collaborate on research with Sarah LaRosa, MOT, OTR/L, SCLV, CLVT, also a graduate of UAB’s Low Vision Rehabilitation Graduate Certificate program. We work virtually, building on her clinical work at the Center for Low Vision at Brooks Rehabilitation in Jacksonville, FL. Our research focuses on outcomes from their low vision service delivery model, including projects related to visual acuity measurement and sleep quality.
Haley Dean
MSOT, 2016
Birmingham/Trussville, Alabama
I’m currently the director of hand therapy services at TherapySouth, where I manage 25 occupational therapists across 16 locations. I am also an adjunct professor at Faulkner University and serve as a content specialist for the Doctor of Physical Therapy program, teaching hand and wrist coursework during the fall and spring semesters.
I love to travel, and some recent destinations include Peru, Norway, and Switzerland.
Susan Philhower Denham
BSOT, 1989
Montgomery, Alabama
Thirty-six years have flown by, and I still love this profession. I have worked in almost every OT setting, but hand therapy remains my passion. I recently retired after 25 years at Alabama State University (ASU), where I was a professor and department chair, and now serve as a professor in the OTD program at Faulkner University.
I have helped develop two OT programs in the state—one focused on diversity and underserved populations, and one grounded in Christian values that provides free therapy services to the community. As I begin to wind down my career at Faulkner, the Faulkner Center for Therapy and Research has recently marked 45,000 free therapy visits for our community. Serving as an educator with this group of faculty, students, and clinicians remains one of the highlights of my career.
Kathy Lenahan
Post-Professional OTD, 2022
Benton, Arkansas
I launched my own LLC, Alta Integrated Wellness, in September 2025. Alta offers OT services using a whole-health model of care in the community, and we are expanding to include integrated, interdisciplinary treatment teams focused on patient outcomes.
Since graduating, I have taught as an adjunct professor in the University of Central Arkansas OTD program and served on legislative committees within my state OT organization and AORTA. I also attended AOTA Hill Day 2025, where I joined colleagues and students to speak with state representatives about legislation affecting the OT profession.
Corey Webb Stone
MSOT, 2012
Colorado Springs, Colorado
I work in a school district in Colorado Springs, where I serve on the district’s special education leadership team as the motor team lead for occupational and physical therapy services.
I also work part time supervising three COTAs in pediatric home health.
Adam Westenhofer
MSOT, 2013
Deming, New Mexico
In 2022, I opened an outpatient therapy clinic, Vida Therapy Group, to deliver services in a small, rural border town with limited access to healthcare. Three years later, our clinic, which serves a bilingual, low-income community, has grown to five therapists. We are the only practice in our town that provides adult and pediatric occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy in a single clinic. Many of our staff are bilingual or English-speaking with some Spanish proficiency.
I take on fieldwork students and high school interns to introduce them to careers in therapy while giving them early exposure to clinical practice. At the same time, I’m working with an architect to plan a 5,000-square-foot clinic as we continue to grow. Giving back is also important to me. We donate to Hearts for Autism and Play Sharity Foundation, a local children’s museum, and I’m a member of Community HealthCare Foundation, a nonprofit that provides small grants to organizations across southwestern New Mexico to help improve healthcare services.