A picture of Sarah wearing a black dress with bare shoulders, gray hair, and sitting in a wheelchair holding a microphone. Her attire and the background make it clear that she is at a gala or formal event.

Sarah Skeels

Sarah is a part-time lecturer in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Tufts. She has a B.S. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Virginia and a Master's Degree in Public Health from the George Washington University School of Public Health, with a focus on health promotion/disease prevention and disability.

Sarah has extensive experience in developing and implementing health promotion and empowerment programs for people with spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis and related neurological impairments in non-profit community-based settings. She is very interested in research that explores adaptation to disability, community re-integration, peer mentoring and outcome assessment.

Sarah is on the board of directors of numerous non-profit organizations that provide sports and recreational opportunities for children and adults with disabilities and believes that these activities encourage full community participation and successful adaptation to disability. Sarah serves on the Rhode Island Governor's Commission for People with Disabilities, teaches a course in Disability, Community and Health at Brown University, and is a Consultant with both the Boston Medical Center SCI Model System and Health and Disability Research Institute at Boston University.

In her non-professional life, Sarah is a member of the U.S. Disabled Sailing Team, an adaptive snow ski instructor, avid cyclist and most importantly, a mom.