A unique and exciting
opportunity for
dialogue and
exchange has
been hap-
pening be-
tween Queen’s
University (QU)
at Kingston,
ON and Niigata
University of
Health and Welfare (NUHW) in Niigata Japan.
The first interaction occurred in 2011 when 12
faculty members from a number of disciplines
within several Japanese universities came to
QU to meet with faculty in the Office of Inter-
professional Education and Practice (OIPEP).
This led to an invitation in 2012 for Dr. Margo
Paterson to be a visiting scholar to the OT pro-
gram at NUHW in Niigata.In the Fall of 2013,
two of the OT faculty from NUHW,
Professor Yoichi Nagai and Dr. Rika Imanishi
accompanied by 3 of their students came to
Kingston to visit the QU OT program. The visit
included a public address by Professor Nagai, a
student origami workshop led by the Japanese
students, participation in QU courses by the
Japanese students and visits to some local clini-
cal sites. In June 2014, following the World Fed-
eration of OT Congress in Yokohama,QU faculty
members Dr. Rosemary Lysaght, Professor Anne
O’Riordan and ACOTUP Executive Director Dr.
Margo Paterson visited NUHW to provide a se-
ries of lectures for OT faculty and students. The
NUHW program was presented with two Cana-
dian publications courtesy of the CAOT, and
copies of the COPM. We were able to meet and
exchange gifts with the NUHW president Dr.
Masaharu Yamamoto, shown in the photo above.
The OT students demonstrated their appreciation
by singing a Japanese version of the song “Let it
Go” (from the Disney movie Frozen) and pre-
sented origami “flower” bouquets as thank you
gifts. We are currently finalizing a memorandum
of agreement between the 2 universities pro-
grams to facilitate ongoing collaboration.
University of Alberta’s Depart-
ment of Occupational Therapy’s
Newest Professor Emerita:
Dr. Joyce Magill-Evans.
Dr. Magill-Evans began her formal
retirement on July 1, 2014. She began
her education in occupational
therapy (OT) in 1971, receiving her
Master’s in Science in the Depart-
ment of Family Studies and then suc-
cessfully obtained her PhD in applied
Human Development in 1987.
She began working in hospitals and medical centres until
she was hired as Assistant Professor at Dalhousie Univer-
sity and then joined the University of Alberta in 1989 as
an Assistant Professor in OT.
During her tenure at the UofA, her work focused on chil-
dren and their families. She was passionate about integrat-
ing research results with her teaching and strived to
improve services in the community that were evidence
based. She also facilitated a campus-wide autism research
group that includes clinicians and graduate students and
developed a measure of social perception. In addition,
she was and is part of a team evaluating ways to support
teens with complex congenital heart disease as they tran-
sition to adult care. In addition, she mentored undergrad-
uate and graduate students as they prepared to make a
difference in the lives of their clients.
Her research contributions spread locally, nationally, and
internationally, and Dr. Evans placed emphasis on con-
tributing to learning and improving of the science to im-
prove the quality of life for the individuals with autistic
disorders and the families who support them.”activity!
Joyce jokes that she’ll miss marking and meetings, but re-
ally she will truly miss working with an amazing interdisci-
plinary group of colleagues. She is capping off her career
with having managed the OT department one last time
and done so with immeasurable efforts and has been an
integral catalyst for the success and prosperity of our de-
partment and program. The sincere appreciation of the
department and colleagues is hard to capture in words.
In the next phase of her life, she looks forward to focusing
on the needs of her family while determining how best to
use her skills and passions. We congratulate our newest
Professor Emerita on her distinguished career!
Global Collaboration Between
Japanese and Canadian
OT Programs
Photo left to right: Y. Nagai, A. O’Riordan, K. Vroman,
M. Yamamoto, R. Lysaght, M. Paterson, M. Oyama
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