Assistant Professor

Department Occupational Therapy

Mailing Address

Regis College

235 Wellesley Street
Weston, MA 02493

About

Dan Houlihan has been an Occupational Therapist for over twenty years, graduating from Sage Graduate School in Troy, New York in 2001.  His capstone research project explored the relationship between the experience of physical injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.  He practiced in an array of rehab settings before being commissioned as an Officer in the United States Navy Medical Service Corps. 

During his first assignment, he provided developmental and school-based OT services for military families in Japan as part of the Educational and Developmental Intervention Services (EDIS) team.  In 2007, he returned to duty stations the U.S., practicing in general in-patient and post-surgical upper extremity outpatient clinics.  Deploying to Afghanistan in 2001, he worked as a member of combat stress/ concussion teams.  At his final duty station, he was Program Director for the military’s joint service Occupational Therapy Assistant Program in San Antonio, Texas. Returning to civilian life, Dan earned his Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) at Tufts University, studying the experience of scuba diving upon the reintegration of combat veterans.  He is an avid scuba diver and supports several projects promoting veteran reintegration through scuba, including the Divers Archaeological Reconnaissance Cooperative (DivARC).

Dan is often accompanied by his co-pilots, Sheba and Bodhi.  He recently welcomed a daughter, Evelyn, in 2023.

Education

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD), Tufts University

Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MS-OT), Russell Sage College

Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science, State University of New York - Buffalo

Courses Taught

  • Clinical Reasoning
  • Hand and Upper Extremity Rehabilitation
  • Human Occupation
  • Occupational Therapy Practice
  • Research Methods

Houlihan, D. J., and Mires, C. H. (2023). DivARC, Combat Veterans and the Mission of Citizen Science. In D. A. Scott-Ireton, J. E. Jones, and Jason T. Raupp (Eds.), Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology: The Power of Public Engagement for Heritage Research, Monitoring, and Preservation. University Press of Florida.

Haran, F. J., Slaboda, J. C., King, L. A., Wright, W. G., Houlihan, D., and Norris, J. N. (2015). Sensitivity of the Balance Error Scoring System and the Sensory Organization Test in the combat environment. Journal of Neurotrauma, 33(7), 705–711. doi.org/10.1089/neu.2015.4060