PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
KAREN S SCHULTZ MS OTR FAOTA CHT

Karen received her Master's in OT from California State University San Jose in1982. She became a Certified Hand Therapist in 1991. She served on the American Society of Hand Therapy board and the Journal of Hand Therapy editorial board. 

After working in major hospital hand centers, she founded her private practice. Currently, she treats patients, lectures and serves as senior consulting hand therapist of KSHULS (Karen Schultz Hand and Upper Limb Strategies). She has now practiced hand therapy for 44 years.
 
She has lectured internationally as a keynote speaker. Her publications include articles, chapters and monographs on a wide range of upper limb rehabilitation topics. Karen's publications include articles in Journal of Hand Therapy, and Journal of Hand Surgery including Splinting the wrist:  mobilization and protection, Static Progressive Splinting and Upper Extremity Factors in the Evaluation of Lifting  She has contributed chapters to the text Rehabilitation of the Hand Eds  4, 5, 6 & 7 on Work-Oriented programs and on Contracture Correction via Casting and Orthosis Management.

In the past, Karen designed and distributed hand rehabilitation products via her company UE TECH. Notably, she conceived of the MERiT™ component that provided an efficient way to provide static progressive management of stiff joints.  She has written about and advocated for the use of static progressive orthosis management. 

She is currently collaborating with Lawrence Hurst MD to provide Hand Therapy content for his comprehensive website Hand Surgery Resource.  She is also collaborating with Barcelona based hand therapist Vicenç Punsola Izard in research regarding management of PIP joint contracture. 

She received recognition as American Occupational Therapy Association Fellow for special Occupational Therapy contributions. Karen was named an Honored Senior Professor for the Philadelphia Hand Symposium in 2004 and Dorothy Kaufmann Lecturer in 2015.