About Teepa Snow

Overview & Philosophy

Teepa Snow, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA
Teepa is a dementia expert who trains and consults for agencies, facilities, and families. Her training as a master’s prepared occupational therapist as well as her extensive and varied work and teaching experience provides Teepa with a unique perspective of how the brain controls our body and our behaviors. This history has provided her a perfect neurosciences background to explain how a brain disease like dementia affects a person. She started her career as a direct care giver over 35 years ago, an NA before there was a “C”. She has taken care of two family members with dementing illnesses. The combination of her been-there-done-that skills and her formal training give Teepa the credibility and experience to help caregivers with tried-and-true solutions. Teepa’s philosophy is based on years of making mistakes and perfecting a positive approach to caregiving. Her teaching style integrates facts about the brain and how it works, or doesn’t work in the case of dementia, with expertise in adult learning principles. She is able to go in and out of character as a typical person with Alzheimer’s to demonstrate common issues and problems and to help care providers learn new ways of thinking and managing themselves for better outcome sand results. Teepa is an advocate for those living with dementia and has made it her personal mission to help family and professional caregivers better understand how it feels to have dementia so they too can be better caregivers. Since her lectures are usually done in the first-person - as if she is the person with dementia - her training gives the audience a first-hand understanding and experience with the disease and a hands-on opportunity to try out new skills in a safe and fun environment.

Biography

Teepa Snow, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA
Teepa is an occupational therapist currently working as a dementia care and dementia education specialist. She has an independent practice. She has clinical appointments with Duke University's School of Nursing and UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine. She provides educational and training sessions to organizations and providers throughout the US. She also lectures for gerontology and health professional programs at colleges and universities across the country. She provides training and education for Alzheimer’s Association and Alzheimer Society conferences, state health care provider organizations, professional association meetings, and caregiver programs and organizations. She works closely with several assisted living and retirement communities, hospice and day service programs, & dementia specialty service providers throughout the US to improve and optimize programs and services to people with dementia and their families.

Teepa has over 30 years of experience in geriatrics. Previously, she served as the education director and lead trainer for the Eastern NC Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. She has also been a program director and an instructor for community college and a clinical associate professor at UNC's School of Medicine, Program on Aging. She has a strong and varied clinical background. She was the OT director in a head injury facility, a clinical specialist in geriatrics at a Veteran's Administration Medical Center and has worked as a restorative care coordinator for long term care facilities, as well as providing direct care in community, home health, long term care, assisted living, and rehabilitation settings. She has worked collaboratively to conduct clinical research in a variety of settings and on a variety of geriatric topics.

Teepa was born in West Virginia and raised in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. She attended Duke University as an undergraduate and graduated with a major in zoology. She then received her MS degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in Occupational Therapy. Since that time she has lived in central North Carolina.

Teepa is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association, has received local, statewide, and national recognition for her expertise in geriatrics, dementia care and programming, and staff training. She has developed two training videos, published many articles, and presents locally, regionally, and nationally on a variety of topics and to a wide variety of audiences. This past year she has presented over 350 programs. She has received awards for her clinical and teaching skills from a wide variety of organizations.