Janet Njelesani

About

Dr. Janet Njelesani is an Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy at New York University (NYU). Her scholarship advances the philosophical and methodological foundations of occupational science and occupational therapy through the development of the critical occupational approach, a novel framework she created to guide occupation-based inquiry. Using this approach, her research addresses critical health and societal issues by examining the factors that influence the occupational participation of historically underrepresented populations. Currently, Dr. Njelesani is exploring issues of equitable inclusion and participation across a range of occupations, including in school settings and caregiving roles. Her work is supported by federal grants such as those from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), foundations including the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) research award, and international organizations like UNICEF. Dr. Njelesani was the first occupational therapy scholar to receive the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. In recognition of her contributions to global occupational therapy research, she has received the American Occupational Therapy Association's (AOTA) Roster of Fellows and International Service Awards, as well as the AOTF's Mid-Career Research Excellence Award. She also serves as the Associate Editor of the Occupational Science Section of OTJR. Her research projects include preventing school…

Research topics

• Medicine
• Sociology
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Nursing
• Computer Security
• Social psychology
• Law

Selected publications

• Inclusion of children with disabilities in qualitative health research: A scoping review

  PLoS ONE · 2022 · 49 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Children with disabilities have the right to participate in health research so their priorities, needs, and experiences are included. Health research based primarily on adult report risks misrepresenting children with disabilities and their needs, and contributes to exclusion and a lack of diversity in the experiences being captured. Prioritizing the participation of children with disabilities enhances the relevance, meaningfulness, and impact of research. METHODS: A scoping review w…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What is the state of children’s participation in qualitative research on health interventions?: a scoping study

  BMC Pediatrics · 2022 · 45 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Children are the focus of numerous health interventions throughout the world, yet the extent of children's meaningful participation in research that informs the adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of health interventions is not known. We examine the type, extent, and meaningfulness of children's participation in research in qualitative health intervention research. METHOD: A scoping study was conducted of qualitative published research with children (ages 6-11 years) carried o…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Becoming Anti-Racist Occupational Therapy Practitioners: A Scoping Study

  OTJR Occupational Therapy Journal of Research · 2021 · 23 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The ongoing racism pandemic in the United States negatively impacts the health, safety, and occupations of Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color. Although occupational therapy (OT) practitioners have a pressing obligation to actively address racism's causes and consequences, they lack guidance on what to do. This scoping study sought to identify and synthesize existing knowledge on ways OT practitioners and the profession can engage in anti-racist actions. Six databases were searched for con…

  DOI

• Anti-racism and Occupational Therapy Education: Beyond Diversity and Inclusion

  Journal of Occupational Therapy Education · 2022-01-01 · 21 citations

  articleOpen access

  There is a pressing need to address racism within healthcare education; however, occupational therapy educators lack a compilation of discipline-specific knowledge of anti-racist actions. The objective of this study was to examine anti-racist instructional practices for educators to employ in occupational therapy education. We conducted a scoping review and systematically searched six electronic databases to identify and synthesize anti-racist educational practices within the occupational therap…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Transitioning from hurting to healing: self-management after distal radius fracture

  Disability and Rehabilitation · 2021 · 18 citations

  PURPOSE: Chronic pain and disability after musculoskeletal trauma support the need for non-biomedical perspectives to frame experiences of recovery. Self-management is a specific holistic lens with implications for improving health outcomes. This qualitative study explored how adults made meaning of self-management after distal radius fracture (DRF). METHODS: Thirty-one individuals aged 45-72 with a unilateral DRF participated in a semi-structured interview 2-4 weeks after discontinuing full-tim…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Debra Cameron

  St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton

  23 shared

• Helene J. Polatajko

  University of Toronto

  13 shared

• Stephanie Nixon

  13 shared

• Jean Hunleth

  Washington University in St. Louis

  8 shared

• Imelda Bates

  Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

  8 shared

• Brocha Z. Stern

  Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

  7 shared

• Shaun Cleaver

  Université de Sherbrooke

  7 shared

• Marianne Stevens

  Centre for Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation

  6 shared

Labs

• Janet Njelesani LabPI

Education

• PhD

  University of Toronto

Awards & honors

• AOTA's Roster of Fellows
• International Service Awards
• AOTF's Mid-Career Research Excellence Award

Similar researchers at New York University

• Yael Goveroverh-37
• Grace Kimh-36
• Amy Hursth-33