Mary E. Brown, OTR/L

Mary Ellen has been a senior occupational therapist at Shriners Children’s New England since 1993. She received a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from Springfield College, and a Bachelor of Arts in Child Development and Psychology from Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Prior to her career as an occupational therapist, she was a certified child life specialist.

Mary Ellen's special interests include working with children and their families for pediatric splinting and post-surgical hand treatment, brachial plexopathy, neuromuscular and developmental disorders, specialized home equipment and environmental modifications, and upper extremity prosthetic training.

Mary Ellen has volunteered for several Shriners Children’s outreach trips, traveling to Nicaragua and China to provide education about pediatric hand therapy, and custom hand and orthoses fabrication. As an adjunct professor, Mary Ellen has lectured on a variety of topics including pediatric occupational therapy interventions, upper extremity prosthetic training, home equipment and accessibility, and ethics and fundamentals in occupational therapy.

Mary Ellen believes in the importance of setting caregiver and patient goals, including families in all occupational therapy interventions, and adapting the environment to fit the child, rather than changing the child to fit the environment.