Rate My Professor Kristin Haas

Dr. Kristin Haas, OTD, OTR/L, is the Professor of Occupational Therapy and Founding Program Director of the Doctorate of Occupational Therapy program at Quincy University. She holds a post-professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, obtained in 2005. Dr. Haas brings over two decades of extensive experience in both clinical occupational therapy practice and higher education administration to her role.

Before her appointment at Quincy University, Dr. Haas served as the Occupational Therapy Program Director at the College of Saint Mary starting in 2003, initially as one of only two full-time faculty members. During her tenure there, she spearheaded the evolution of the program from a bachelor's level to a master's program and ultimately to a fully accredited Occupational Therapy Doctorate program that launched in the fall of 2019. Her leadership emphasized developing strong professional reasoning, clinical skills, critical thinking, and hands-on training to equip students for dynamic healthcare environments. In 2021, Dr. Haas was honored with the Inspiring Excellence Award for Faculty at the College of Saint Mary, recognizing her pivotal role in program development and implementation.

At Quincy University, Dr. Haas leads the institution's inaugural doctoral program in occupational therapy, which received approval in April 2025 and hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in January 2026 for its dedicated facility. The program, inspired by Quincy University's Catholic Franciscan values, prepares occupational therapists for advanced practice. Her primary teaching areas include capstone projects, research methodologies, occupational therapy theory, and professional development courses. Dr. Haas's academic interests center on professional identity formation, innovative curriculum design, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning within occupational therapy education.

A notable contribution to the field is her co-authorship of the 2024 publication "The Visualize Whole-Self Model (VW Model): An Instructional Design for Occupational Therapy Education" in the Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, which presents a novel instructional framework grounded in learning science and educational best practices.