2024 ATRA Annual Conference - Together We Thrive, Together We Rise

PhD, CTRS, FDRT

Dr. Snethen is the associate director of the Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion. Her work focuses on examining factors that impact community participation of individuals with serious mental illnesses and developing/testing interventions that facilitate community participation. Related to T2D, Dr. Snethen leads two funded projects. One completed in December 2023 focused on the development of a training series for peer support specialists who have co-occurring mental illness and T2D. The second project aims to explore real-time, environmental factors that influence physical activity and dietary behaviors of individuals with serious mental illnesses. Ultimately, these data will be used to inform the development of a peer-run intervention.

PhD, CTRS, FDRT

Bryan McCormick is a professor in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in the College of Public Health at Temple University. Dr. McCormick is a past president of the American Therapeutic Recreation Association and is a fellow in the Academy of Leisure Sciences and the National Academy of Recreational Therapists. He is the author or co-author of over 60 peer-reviewed publications, more than 40 published research abstracts, 3 books and 15 book chapters. Dr. McCormick’s work has been published in journals such as Journal of Leisure Research, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Therapeutic Recreation Journal, and Schizophrenia Research. Working with co-investigators and graduate students, his group has successfully used a variety of data collection and data analysis techniques to capture the everyday experience of adults with severe mental illness. His current work is focused on translating basic findings on everyday life activities into field-based interventions to improve social functioning and community participation among adults with mental illnesses. He is also working with Dr. Snethen to better understand factors that influence health behaviors among individuals with serious mental illnesses and at risk for T2D. He is a two-time recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research and lectures in psychiatric services in Serbia (2010) and Bosnia (2017). Dr. McCormick has provided trainings in the US and internationally on the use of recreation as a form of psychosocial intervention in psychiatric rehabilitation.