Rebecca Ehretsman | |
Office: | 18th President of Wartburg College |
Education: | Purdue University Washington University in St. Louis Saint Louis University |
Term Start: | July 1, 2022 |
Predecessor: | Darrel D. Colson |
Birth Name: | Rebecca L. Ehretsman |
Birth Date: | 6 September 1972 |
Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Rebecca L. Ehretsman (formerly von der Heyde and Neiduski; born September 6, 1972) is an American occupational therapist and academic administrator serving as the eighteenth president of Wartburg College since 2022. She is a hand therapist specialized in flexor tendon rehabilitation.
Ehretsman was born September 6, 1972, in Chicago in a Lutheran family.[1] [2] Both of her parents were educators. She completed a B.A. in movement and sport science with minors in psychology and English at Purdue University in 1994.[2] [3] [4] In 1997, she earned a M.S. in occupational therapy from Washington University in St. Louis.[3] [4] Christine Novak was her master's project chair.[5] Ehretsman's master's thesis titled, Subjective Recovery of Nerve Graft Donor Site, was published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery in 1999.[2] [6]
Ehretsman is a certified hand therapist specializing in flexor tendon rehabilitation.[3] From 1998 to 1999, she was an occupational therapist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.[4] She was a hand therapist at the Milliken Hand Rehabilitation Center from 1999 to 2013 and Shriners Hospitals for Children from 2007 to 2013.[4] From 2002 to 2013, Ehretsman was an associate professor of occupational therapy with tenure at Maryville University.[7] She graduated with a Ph.D. in education from Saint Louis University in 2009.[3] [4] Her dissertation was titled, Goal Orientation and Problem-based Learning: A Qualitative Analysis in Occupational Therapy Education.[2] Michael P. Grady was her doctoral advisor.[2] From 2013 to 2017, she was the chair and program director of the department of occupational therapy at Concordia University Wisconsin.[7] From June 2017 to June 2022, she was a professor of health sciences and dean of the school of health sciences at Elon University.[4] [7] On July 1, 2022, Ehretsman became the eighteenth president of Wartburg College, succeeding Darrel D. Colson.[7] She is its first female president.[8]