TWU MOT Program Earns Full Accreditation Status
The Tennessee Wesleyan University Master of Occupational Therapy program, located in downtown Knoxville, reached a major milestone, last month, achieving Full Accreditation Status from ACOTE, The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education.
Full Accreditation status means that TWU MOT graduates are now eligible to sit for the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy Examination, which is required for state licensure to practice.
The first graduating class for the TWU MOT program will walk across the stage this
coming July. This group of graduates represents the inaugural MOT cohort, which began
in the fall of 2019. But the journey began long before the first day of classes.
“I started this process with a Letter of Intent to create a new MOT Program back in early 2017,” said Dr. Robert Mullaney, Founding Director of the MOT Program. “Since then, we’ve created the Pre-OT undergraduate track, searched for and identified a suitable location for the program, created the curriculum, and gathered valuable input from community constituents along the way. With that information, we were able to create a unique graduate OT program that meets the needs of the community and students while also meeting ACOTE Standards for OT Education.”
The MOT program operates in the Newland Professional Building on the campus of Fort Sanders Regional in downtown Knoxville. The location allows for close proximity to partners at Covenant Health, as well as the TWU Nursing program, located in West Knoxville.
“Once a location was identified, with the help of our strong affiliated partnerships and the Covenant Health System, the necessary equipment and supplies to support the program were ordered and the plan was put into action,” added Dr. Mullaney.
“Faculty were found to share their experiences and provide the strong foundations for our well-rounded, generalist, future OT practitioner students. It has been a very long and tedious journey, and now we look forward to further improving and growing our program offerings!”
Occupational Therapy begins a new cohort of students each fall, which completes their coursework in two years. Undergraduate students planning to attend the MOT program can major in Exercise Science with an emphasis in Pre-OT.