NSU Horizons Spring 2014

Virtual healing Y ears ago, a practicing occupational therapist made three-hour drives on Texas highways just to spend one hour with a patient. Flash-forward a few decades, and that same healer is now an assistant professor at NSU’s College of Health Care Sciences, set to pioneer a new field to help amputees worldwide—via virtual world technology. That’s the dream of Sandra Winkler, Ph.D., registered and licensed occupational therapist, who is beginning year two in a three-year program made possible by a $900,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services. A few floors above her in NSU’s Terry Building is an educator who had a similar grand idea three years ago after watching her granddaughter playing on the com- puter. Marti Echols, Ph.D., M.Ed., joined the child, and they both became avatars flying around in a virtual world. By John Dolen ABOVE: Sandra Winkler, Ph.D., uses her avatar, left, to show how an amputee would play the piano. 35 HORIZONS