DETROIT - The Singin' Scientist - bestselling author Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. - is coming to campus on June 4 to help Wayne State University's Occupational Therapy (OT) program celebrate its 65th anniversary. Taylor, a neuroanatomist and author of My Stroke of Insight, is the keynote speaker at the commemorative OT conference.

Following Taylor's address, which is open to the public, retired OT Program Director Miriam Freeling (professor emerita) is being honored at a luncheon. In the afternoon, conference participants can attend two of four breakout sessions: Fieldwork Updates, Evidenced-based Interventions for Hemiplegic, Household "Moves" in Late Life - Gerontology Study, or the Driving Simulator Research Lab Tour/Workshop.

"We are excited to have Dr. Taylor as our keynote speaker on the occasion of OT's 65th anniversary celebration," said Doreen Y. Head, Ph.D., director of the OT program. Head added that Taylor will sign copies of her book following her presentation.

"Our students and faculty look forward to the return of our retired faculty and alumni to the campus, as well as the opportunity to draw other health care professionals and providers to hear this nationally known, extraordinary neuroanatomist. The anniversary celebration promises to be a day of learning, sharing and developing new friendships," Head said.

The OT conference is scheduled from 9 a.m to 4:30 p.m. on June 4 (Friday) at the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, 259 Mack Ave. at John R in Detroit. Register online at http://specialevents.wayne.edu/ot-65th-anniversary or call (313) 577-0300. The cost to attend the keynote address, luncheon and workshop sessions is $100; $75 for the keynote address and luncheon; $50 for the keynote address; and $25 for the luncheon or the workshop sessions. There is a $10 discount for students and alumni. There is no charge for the afternoon's Fieldwork Educators Meeting.

Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist when she experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain in 1996. This rare form of stroke affected her ability to walk, talk, read, write and recall any of her life. It took eight years for Taylor to recover these functions and her cognitive ability. In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, she shares her recommendations for recovery and insights into the unique functions of the right and left halves of the brain. She was chosen as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2008.

Taylor is national spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center and travels the country as the Singin' Scientist. In addition, she is the consulting neuroanatomist for the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and president of the Greater Bloomington Affiliate of NAMI in Indiana.

Wayne State's OT program is in the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. It was initially offered in 1944 as a special education program leading to an academic certificate or a Bachelor of Science degree, one of the first such programs in the country. A transformation of the program occurred in spring 2003 with the beginning of the entry-level Master of Occupational Therapy program, which allows students to complete their studies in a minimum of five years.

The Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, a founding college of Wayne State University, is committed to advancing the health and well-being of society through the preparation of highly skilled health care practitioners, and through research to improve health care practices and treatment from the urban to global levels.

Wayne State University is a premier urban research university offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students.