Every year, the SSO:USA Annual Research Conference brings together leading researchers, scholars, therapists, and students to exchange ideas and share their work related to the study of participation in daily activities or those activities that occupy our lives. We are excited to announce that the 2025 Annual Research Conference will take place November 6 - 8, 2025, at the Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas. 

Moody Gardens

Conference Registration is NOW OPEN!

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Conference Theme:  Occupations and Nature: Connections and Transactions

The theme concerns connections and interactions of nature and occupation. Just as nature-based contexts impact occupations that occur in various ecologies, human occupation has profound impacts on these and other ecosystems/ the natural world. Sessions may relate to the theme in various ways, such as discussion questions, interpretations or reflections.

Tentative Conference Schedule 

Ruth Zemke Lectureship in Occupational Science: In recognition of Dr. Ruth Zemke's mentorship, questing intellect, and ongoing efforts to foster an occupational science community of researchers, this Lectureship was named in her honor. The lectureship is designed as a forum to present visionary, theoretical, and critical analyses of occupational science.

2025 Ruth Zemke Lectureship in Occupational Science: Dr. Mary Lawlor, ScD, OTR/L, FAOTA

"Let’s Take a Moment: Temporality and Significant Experiences"

Mary C. Lawlor, Sc.D., M.Ed., OTR/L, FAOTA, is Professor and Associate Chair for Research in the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California.  Dr. Lawlor directs the Boundary Crossings Research Lab and has over 25 years of experience conducting interdisciplinary and community-partnered research focused on children with developmental and special healthcare needs, their families, and the clinicians who support them.

 Her scholarship is distinguished by its commitment to examining the meanings of illness and disability in family and community life, the social and narrative nature of therapeutic encounters, and the sociocultural factors shaping health care, particularly among chronically underserved populations. She has led and collaborated on numerous federally funded studies, including two NIH R01 grants, a Maternal and Child Health Bureau-funded ethnographic study, and a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) capacity-building engagement award.

 Dr. Lawlor has been instrumental in the development of narrative and phenomenological methodologies in occupational science, including the creation of collective narrative interviewing. Her work in autism research has highlighted the importance of emic perspectives and explored how sensory processing challenges impact lived experience and social participation. Her ongoing research includes studies on uncertainty in the lives of autistic children and their caregivers.

 An award-winning mentor, Dr. Lawlor received the 2024 USC Mentoring Award for Faculty Mentoring Graduate Students and has chaired or served on dozens of doctoral committees across PhD, OTD, and MA programs. As a leader in research development, she mentors junior faculty.

 She is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association and a member of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation’s Academy of Research, where she also served as Chair of the Board of Trustees. In recognition of her scholarship, she was selected to deliver the 2022–2023 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lecture, one of the highest honors in the field of occupational therapy.

Dr. Lawlor earned her Sc.D. in Therapeutic Studies from Boston University, her M.Ed. from Harvard University, and her B.S. in Occupational Therapy from Boston University.

Pre-Conference Education Workshop: Connecting around Occupational Science Education: A conversation for all

Facilitated by members of the SSO:USA Education Committee

Pre-Conference Research Institute: Water: Muddying Doing, Knowing, and Being

Water evokes paradoxical statements. Fluid and ephemeral, it is the bedrock of the world; projecting an image of clarity it provides an atmosphere of opacity. In my presentation I connect this paradoxicality to water’s deeply relational character. Water is always in relation, its movement of meandering bespeaks the dynamic of sedimentation and reactivation, water and land, inseparable in their doing and being together. Relationality implies complexity and hence ambiguity, incommensurability, and indeterminacy.

 I will present various projects in which humans have set out to control water in its relation to land, only to have to confront unexpected consequences. As water reveals, nature is not out there, it is enmeshed in us, in our practices, in the way we think and do things, it makes us, is us, is in all that surrounds us. It creates situations, atmospheres, entities. It muddies our existence.

 I argue that this muddying, this combination of water and land, of doing and being, this ‘messiness’ is intrinsic to any relational situational complexity. It requires an attunement to a different sense of knowing, a knowing intrinsically related to doing, to practices, to being in situations, to  being as being with,  doing as a doing with, a process-based doing. In my presentation I trace how this knowing and doing have become eclipsed by the dominance of a logic of linearity versus a meandering trajectory that is predicated on its environmental embeddedness. I argue that our current era asks for muddying: doing, knowing and being with as exemplified by the ways of water.

 I look forward to conversations with the attendees about the relevance of such a deeply relational environmental approach to their practices.

One of the unique features of SSO:USA conferences is the attention devoted to balance and the quality of participants’ experiences.  Researchers should leave an SSO:USA conference refreshed, stimulated, and energized to return to their work.  Shared meals, conference break blocks, and a range of balance activities encourage attendees to rejuvenate, network, and explore unique aspects of local culture.  

This year the SSO conference Traditions of Talent Share and Sing-along will be our "Art Share". All attendees are invited to contribute and enjoy this informal community gathering with many art forms-- singing, poetry, stand-up, and more.  

SSO:USA is committed to welcoming and supporting attendees of all gender identities, races and ethnicities, abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and diverse cultures to our conference space. The Conference Committee is working to ensure that resources and supports are provided to facilitate inclusion and safety for all attendees. This includes addressing any issues of discrimination that could arise, as well as: 

• Pronouns: Attendees may add pronouns to their name tag

• Inclusive Bathrooms: Signage will designate gender inclusive bathrooms in Moody Gardens each day. 

• Presentations/Communication: Seats will be reserved in the front row of all breakout rooms for attendees with hearing or seeing difficulties as well as mobility devices. Presenters will be instructed to use Closed Captions on presentation slides. 

• Accessibility guidelines are provided to presenters.

• Service Animals: Per the Moody Gardens accessibility guide service dogs, as defined by law, are allowed in the Center.  https://www.moodygardens.com/visitor-info/accessibility

• Quiet Hub will be available throughout the conference.  Please check the registration desk and signage. This designated safe environment may be used to reduce sensory overload, engage in mediation, spiritual or other restorative activities. 

• Space for lactation will be designated by signage and at the registration desk.

• Physical Access: Moody Gardens is accessible for those using wheelchairs or who have other mobility needs. https://www.moodygardens.com/visitor-info/accessibility 

It is the expectation that attendees at this year's SSO:USA Annual Research Conference will treat others with respect, follow facility and event rules, and alert SSO:USA and/or Moody Gardens if exclusionary or discriminatory behaviors occur. If you have questions or concerns about inclusivity or safety prior to the conference, please contact Cynthia Evetts at [email protected].

Conference Registration is NOW OPEN!

Register Here!

Pre-Conference

Main Conference

Book Your Hotel Room at Moody Gardens

Parking Information 

SSO:USA 2025 Silent Auction Donations Form 

The Society holds an annual silent auction at conference to facilitate student scholarship in occupational science. Donated items collected prior to the annual conference support this activity. Consistent with the mission of the Society, proceeds from the Silent Auction foster the development of researchers by funding student research projects and presentations on the study of occupation. The auction began with the efforts by Dr. Phyllis Meltzer to obtain donations of hand-crafted and artful objects for fund-raising in support of the work of SSO:USA. The auction has expanded to include a wide range of items and opportunities, whose auction proceeds support student research in the study of occupation.

• Artful, handmade objects
• Books
• Jewelry
• Gift certificates, gift cards, or vacation vouchers
• Souvenirs of the conference location
• University logo gear or swag

If you would like to donate to the silent auction, please complete the SSO:USA 2025 Silent Auction Donations Form to provide the details of your item(s). Donors are encouraged to complete the form by October 31, 2025, but we will continue to accept items until noon on the day of the auction (Friday, November 7th).

You may hand-deliver your donation to the conference registration table OR mail the item in advance to:
Texas Woman’s University
Attn: Kristen McDaniel, SSO Auction
School of Occupational Therapy - 7th Floor
6700 Fannin Street
Houston, TX 77030

​​Mailed items should arrive at this address by Friday, October 31st

Please email any questions or requests for information to [email protected]. Thank you for your donation and support of students in the occupational science community.

Donate to SSO:USA

For website/technical questions, please contact [email protected]. For event questions and sponsorship opportunities, please contact [email protected].