Rate My Professor Annalise O'Callaghan

Annalise O'Callaghan is a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy within the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy (BSc OT), Graduate Certificate in Public Health from Curtin University, Master of Philosophy in Occupational Therapy (MPhil OT), and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). As a registered occupational therapist, clinician, teaching academic, and higher education researcher, O'Callaghan is recognized for her student-centred approach to teaching and learning. Her career at Curtin emphasizes innovative pedagogies, including the flipped classroom model for large first-year health sciences units, where she led efforts to enhance student preparation through intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. She has been lead investigator on two successful Teaching Excellence grants and received the Faculty of Health Sciences Individual Teacher Excellence Award in the School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work.

O'Callaghan's research spans occupational therapy practice, higher education scholarship, interprofessional education, and simulation-based learning. She contributed as a research assistant to the Valuing Lived Experience Project, integrating lived experience perspectives into occupational therapy and social work curricula. Key interests include experiences of individuals with dual diagnoses of acquired brain injury and mental illness, hospital-to-home transitions, and student engagement in research-based experiences. Notable publications include 'Exploring the experiences of people with the dual diagnosis of acquired brain injury and mental illness' (Cocks, Bulsara, O'Callaghan, Netto, & Boaden, 2014, Brain Injury) and contributions to 'An Interprofessional Simulation-Based Learning Activity for Nursing, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Students' (Kelly et al., 2017). She has presented at conferences such as the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL), Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA), and Occupational Therapy Australia on topics like flipped learning and interprofessional collaboration. Her work advances curriculum design, professional readiness, and employability in health professions education.