Ms. Samantha SHANN

Samantha is the President of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), a Board Member for the International Society of Wheelchair Professionals (ISWP) and a member of the Steering Committee for the World Health Organisation’s World Rehabilitation Alliance (co-chair for the Workforce workstream).

Samantha graduated as an occupational therapist in 1992 and has worked internationally in a wide range of practice and education settings in low, middle and high-resourced settings.

Presently based in the UK, Samantha practices as an occupational therapist and is a Director of The Occupational Therapy Service, a private occupational therapy service providing rehabilitation and consultancy services. Her clinical background covers mental health, rehabilitation with older adults and developing community-based rehabilitation programmes. For 18 years Samantha worked in higher education specialising in interprofessional learning, fieldwork placements, and curricula design.

She has over 20 years’ working to effect change at government, institutional and service level with expertise in organisational management including service delivery and design within the rehabilitation field. Samantha is frequently invited to speak internationally and regularly provides expertise and mentorship on leadership, advocacy and service development.

Samantha is highly respected by her peers and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (UK).