Karen Park, OTD, OTR/L

Dr. Karen Park has extensive experience in pediatric practice in a variety of service settings including early intervention, clinic, school, hospital and outpatient children’s mental health. She is Board Certified in Pediatrics by the American Occupational Therapy Association and holds Advanced Practice certification in swallowing assessment, evaluation and intervention in California.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, Dr. Park was an assistant professor of clinical occupational therapy and the director of academic fieldwork education at the University of Southern California (USC), Chan Division of Occupational Science and Therapy. Her expertise in fieldwork education focuses on role-emerging fieldwork experiences in children’s mental health settings; specifically mentoring occupational therapy (OT) students in identifying and establishing the role of OT in addressing the occupational needs of underserved children and families with a history of complex trauma.

She was also clinical faculty at the USC University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities in the interdisciplinary feeding development clinic serving children with feeding challenges, co-occurring neurodevelopmental disorders and a history of medical or psychosocial trauma. She has taught courses on pediatric practice and given additional lectures on infant mental health and mealtime assessment and intervention. She also completed the certificate program in Sensory Integration at USC Chan.

Dr. Park has lectured nationally and internationally on topics around interdisciplinary approaches to feeding assessment and intervention, the intersection of trauma and mental health factors on mealtime engagement and enjoyment, healthy weight for children with special healthcare needs, as well as developing and sustaining role-emerging experiences.