About

Licensed & Registered Doctor of Occupational Therapy

So why have a Doctor of Occupational Therapy help with your interior design needs? Occupational Therapists (“OTs”) are healthcare professionals who are skilled in the facilitation of everyday life. Think of “occupations” as the things you do to occupy your time. This could cover anything from preparing meals, to getting dressed, to entertaining friends. Starting to see how this might be relevant? Katy completed her doctorate from Washington University School of Medicine in 2021, practicing initially in neurorehabilitation. She worked with clients in the hospital and inpatient units who were getting ready to discharge home after serious medical conditions such as spinal cord injury, stroke, and neurosurgeries. These clients often needed not only physical rehabilitation, but home modifications in order to be safe and thrive in their own homes.

Specialty Certification in Home Modifications

That brings us to Katy’s specialty certification in Home Modifications. In 2022, she had the opportunity to support United Indian Health Services with the creation of a unique outpatient clinic as the Lead OT and Project Coordinator. It became clear early on as she began seeing clients, that even outside of a hospital setting, home modifications were an invaluable addition to a full-service rehab department so she completed the University of Southern California’s Executive Certificate Program in order to better support her clients. This time, however, her clients consisted of elders who were experiencing many of the changes that come with aging such as decreasing vision, balance, and hearing.

Interior Design Intensive

Luckily, Katy has always been creative and took architecture and design classes every semester through two bachelors degrees & graduate school. In fact, in the summer of 2019 she enrolled in an intensive Interior Design course through Parsons in New York City. This is where the fledgling concept for May Living Designs was born. Katy’s goal throughout the intensive was to imagine how a thorough understanding of both health and design could enhance people’s lives. Her final project, called May House, included a fully accessible, sound absorbing, custom lighting & furniture scheme home made from sustainable, repurposed shipping containers that blended her two passions seamlessly.

Fun fact - Katy completed her Interior Design work in New York City in 2019, just before COVID19 hit the United States. She then went out on her first fieldwork rotations after completing her doctoral coursework in the summer of 2020 in the height of the pandemic in New Orleans.