Where Are They Now: Connor Warren, MSOT ‘19

She always knew that she wanted to do something in the medical field, so when Connor Warren, MSOT ‘19, considered her career options, she chose a profession that melded her interests into one occupation.

Among those interests were teaching yoga and being creative through  art and photography. And everything combined together equaled Occupational Therapy (OT).

“I heard a lot of great things from OTs working in the field,” said Warren. “And I always heard great things about Salus University’s OT program. Nobody ever had anything bad to say about it.”

Consequently, Warren couldn’t have been happier with her choice of institutions to train her to enter the profession. In the Salus OT program, she was exposed to all the different sides of OT — pediatrics, geriatrics, prosthetics, mental health — everything that might involve OT.

“I loved the OT field work. Brianna Brim, PhD ‘22, MOT, OTR/L, CPAM, CLIPP, associate professor, was the coordinator at the time and she was great at taking an individual’s interests and passions and matching those with the field work,” said Warren.

She became interested in addiction and behavioral health, so Dr. Brim arranged for Warren to do both a Level 1 and Level 2 field work at the Livengrin Foundation, an outpatient substance abuse treatment center in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

After graduating from Salus, Warren worked at Livengrin for a couple of years, then moved on to the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she has worked for the past three years.

At the VA she is on the research and quality improvement side as a project manager for the Quality Enhancement Research Initiative where she leads the implementation of two evidence-based occupational therapy practices for nine medical centers across Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia, Ohio, New York, New Jersey and Delaware. 

“It’s more like the implantation science part of things. There’s been a learning curve but it’s been fun to learn.

I did not anticipate landing in something like this,” said Warren. “Lauren Sponseller, PhD ‘18, OTD, MSOTR/L, MEd, CLA, chair of the OT department and interim dean of University’s College of Health Sciences, Education and Rehabilitation (CHER), had sent an email to alums about a position opening with some researchers at Penn and the VA for the Center of Health Equity, Research and Promotion. They were looking for an OT to lead the project. I applied even though I know idea what I was getting into.”

Looking ahead, Warren is considering getting her PhD and doing her own implementation science research in the field of occupational therapy, although she said she’s perfectly happy at the VA for now and is doing a lot of research that she likes. 

A native of Downingtown, Warren graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology from Drexel University. She believes the upcoming merger between her two alma maters will benefit both, especially the research arm of Drexel.

“It’s a great institution and I think that Salus is really going to benefit,” she said. “I think Drexel will benefit too because there was never an OT department. Hopefully that will get more people involved in OT and give it more exposure.”

She urges current Salus students to take advantage of everything Drexel has to offer, particularly its large national network and expertise.

When she’s not being an OT, Warren teaches yoga for adults and children at a community center and plays with her dogs, two miniature poodles named Kiwi and Gidget, and a pitbull name Kane. She and Richard Mitchell also recently just got married in May 2024. Richard’s father is a professor at Drexel, Dr. Kevin Mitchell.