UAB Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy Sarah Tucker, PhD, OTR/L, has built a career focused on understanding how occupational therapy can support people marginalized by systemic inequities and contribute in nontraditional settings such as prison systems. It is for this body of work, spanning occupational justice, trauma-informed practice, criminal justice, and health equity, that the Alabama Occupational Therapy Association (ALOTA) awarded Tucker its highest honor, the Elsie Holmes McKibbin Award, at its 2026 Annual Conference in Gulf Shores.
Rachel Ashcraft, MS, OTR/L, assistant professor of occupational therapy, and Gavin Jenkins, PhD, OTR/L, professor and chair of the UAB Department of Occupational Therapy, nominated Tucker for the award, given annually to an occupational therapist who has significantly advanced the profession’s knowledge base.
“For more than two decades as an occupational therapist and more than a decade as an educator and scholar, Dr. Tucker has consistently expanded the profession’s role in addressing complex societal issues while strengthening occupational therapy throughout Alabama,” Ashcraft said.
A recent project focuses on palliative and end-of-life care. In a current UAB-funded pilot study with Redemption Earned, an Alabama nonprofit serving seriously ill people in prison, Tucker is exploring palliative care for people who are incarcerated or recently released. Working with a community advisory board, she will use participants’ photographs and experiences (a research method called photovoice) to better understand their palliative care needs and where care falls short.
Tucker has also spent more than a decade advocating for occupational therapy and encouraging practitioners to consider areas such as prison practice and occupational justice. As director of UAB's Post-Professional OTD program, she has carried that same focus into education and mentorship, connecting students with community-based work in foster care, reentry, and criminal justice and creating opportunities to examine those issues across disciplines.
That blend of scholarship, advocacy, and education is central to Tucker’s impact, Ashcraft said.
“Her work has expanded occupational therapy into emerging practice areas, and gives students and practitioners concrete ways to see where the profession can contribute,” Ashcraft said.
