University of Florida freshman Barbara Schell changed majors no fewer than four times before following the advice of a dorm mate and looking into occupational therapy. Now, after a four-decade run in the profession, Schell concludes her service at Brenau University, where she founded and built one of the best clinical-based OT programs in North America and arguably set the cornerstone for the university’s growth into health care professions education. In the parlance of another of her passions, golf, she hit that OT ball dead solid perfect.

When Brenau launched OT in 1995 with Schell as its chair, it was one of the first institutions in North America to require a master’s degree for occupational therapy – even before the professional association that certifies OT practitioners required that degree level. In Schell’s final semester as the dean of the School of Occupational Therapy, the university fittingly awarded its first two OT doctorates and admitted 32 new graduate degree candidates, the full complement that it routinely enrolls each new semester from pools of hundreds of applicants.

The Gainesville-based program already was ranked regularly as one of the top in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Now, with a program on the Norcross, Georgia, campus fully operational, the magazine lists both operations separately in its top programs rankings. Of the 850 people who have earned OT degrees and more who have taught as faculty at Brenau, 10 currently serve on the board of the Georgia Occupational Therapy Association. Also, Brenau Professor Susan Stallings-Sahler currently is a gubernatorially appointed member of the State Board of Occupational Therapy, Georgia’s professional licensing agency.

“It’s hard to imagine Brenau University and the School of OT without Barb Schell, but I think we will not have to,” says OT Instructor Amanda Miller Buono, WC ’99, one of the first OT grads. “Her fingerprints are everywhere and her work will continue to inspire learners and leaders for the next generation.”

In retirement, Schell says, she will continue working in the field consulting, editing texts and speaking at conferences. She’ll also work on her poetry, painting, graphic design and – as a surprise to no one who has run Schell in as a ringer on university pick-up teams for tournaments – her already outstanding golf game.