Heather Ferro, OTD, MS, OTR/L, CHSE

Heather is passionate about interprofessional collaboration! She has been a licensed occupational therapist for 28 years, spending her clinical career working in teams to improve the health & wellbeing of adults/older adults. Dr. Ferro has been a clinical instructor within the OT programs at D’Youville since 2009.

• OTD, Occupational Therapy Doctorate, Chatham University, 2017
• BS/MS, Occupational Therapy, D’Youville University, 1995  
• CHSE, Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator, Society for Simulation in Healthcare, 2019

• Medical Training Magazine: Patient Safety Advocate Award (2019) 
• D’Youville University: OT Faculty of the Year Award (2017-18) 
• D’Youville University: OT Faculty of the Year Award (2011-12)
• D’Youville University: Pi Theta Epsilon's Honorary Lifetime Member Award (2012)

• Interprofessional Education
• Use of Simulated Patients
• Caregiver Training
• Alzheimer's & Dementia Care

• Butterfoss, K, Cieri, N., Ferro, H., Beutel, B., Case, A., DeMarco, L., Dunn, B., Stewart, M., Verni, C., Whalen, M., Duszkiewicz, A., & Panzarella, K. (2022). Interprofessional education and transitions of care: A simulated curriculum from preoperative to community care, SN Social Sciences, 51(2022), https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-022-00355-2 
• Panzarella, K., Butterfoss, K., Ferro, H., Cypert, J., & Koszelak, C. (2019). The benefits of training health professional students in TeamSTEPPS® prior to graduation, Medical Training Magazine, 8(1), 16-19. 
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/benefits-training-health-professional-students-prior-karen/
• DeMarco, L., Panzarella, K., Ferro, H., Pownall, L., Case, A., Nowakowski, P., Stewart, M., Duszkiewicz, A., Verni, C., Kennedy, M., Cieri, N., Dowd, C., & Dunford, D. (2015) Outcomes of an Interprofessional Simulation Curriculum, Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 7(2), 453-468. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JARHE-10-2014-0086/full/html
• Panzarella, K., Rivers, L, Bright, B., Whelan, M, Butterfoss, K., Russ, L., Case, A., Brian, S., Ferro, H., DeMarco, L., Dunford, D., Schmitz, K., Kittleson, H., Kennedy, M., Brzykcy, D., Pownall, L. & Reddington, M. (2013). Using Actors as Simulated Patients for Interprofessional Education: A Year Long Production, Medical Science Educator, 23(3S). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03341666