Barbara Palmer, OTR
Speaker, Life Coach, Health Coach, Author, and Trainer

E-mail: bp@barbarapalmerotr.com
Phone: Office: 281-942-1116, Ext. 1 or Cell: 281-301-4820
Professional info
Barbara Palmer, OTR, CLC, CHC, CBIS, MISM, MA, is President and CEO of BP Life Coaching Services, LLC, a professional coaching and management consultancy specializing in the provision of customized transformational diversity, equity, and inclusion training services within for-profit, non-profit and government agencies. She is trained as an occupational therapist specializing in cultural diversity, occupational justice, and organizational change. Barbara Palmer is a certified transformational life coach, certified health coach, and certified brain injury specialist who understands personal and corporate transformation and facilitates lasting personal, professional, and organizational change. Barbara is also a certified health coach and a certified brain injury specialist, with extensive administrative, program development, and program director experience, including higher education responsible for curriculum development, delivery, and compliance.
Barbara has twenty-plus years of administrative experience overseeing and developing training programs and community partnerships within for-profit and non-profit organizations and draws from her decades of experience working with healthcare, government, professional, educational, philanthropic, and other business entities.
Before launching BP Life Coaching Services, LLC, Barbara worked as an allied health program director and professor in higher education. She holds an MISM from DeVry University Keller Graduate School of Management, a Master of Arts degree in Christian Counseling from Word Bible College, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupational Therapy from Wayne State University. She is an evidence-based Certified Health Coach with certification from the National Society of Health Coaches of America. Since growing up amid racial unrest, she has remained abreast and involved in cultural diversity equity and inclusion issues locally, nationally, and globally.
In a racially diverse neighborhood, she grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She attended school with people of several ethnic groups, such as Italian, Polish, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Arab, Asian, Hispanic, American-Caucasian, Jewish, and African American. However, within five years during her upbringing, African Americans were the primary ethnic group that populated the neighborhood and school, initially due to increased gang activity in the area. Over a period of another five years, on July 23-28, 1967, neighborhoods and their diversity in Detroit were forever changed when race riots broke out after police clashed with a mob of angry African Americans who began protesting in response to a police raid on an unlicensed after-hours bar that was hosting an event honoring eighty-five recently returned Viet-Nam Veterans. Things quickly got out of hand for the police, who fled, after arresting everyone, including the veterans. Violence erupted and escalated quickly throughout the city. More than 7,200 arrests; 1,189 civilians wounded; forty-three civilians killed; 493 soldiers injured, and 16 Airborne army men, one police officer, two firefighters, and 1 Michigan national guard were killed; more than a thousand buildings burned and destroyed. Looting of corner stores and other neighborhood businesses was prominent, and the setting on fire of homes and buildings was beyond anything the fire department or army forces could control. The Michigan Army National Guard and U.S. Army’s 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions were ordered by Governor George W. Romney into Detroit to establish order in the city and enforce curfews. It took weeks to achieve some semblance of order and more than forty years to restore the city. https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/1967-detroit-riots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot
https://www.britannica.com/event/Detroit-Riot-of-1967
Barbara’s work history includes her role as a project coordinator for a minority health and research project which explored health disparities regarding the prevalence of diabetes and colorectal cancer, conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham in partnership with Tuskegee University and community partners. Her work as an occupational therapist has afforded her multiple opportunities to experience racism and yet look beyond it because of her belief that we are one race, human. However, she recognizes that racism, prejudice, and unconscious bias have resulted in disparities that impact diverse people groups and show up in numerous ways, including, but not limited to, occupational injustice and disparities in healthcare services. She understands that the variables that result in inequalities are complex but, when identified, can often be transformed if approached in ways that address the changeable variables. Diversity, equity, and inclusion issues have changeable variables if addressed in ways that get to the root of the problems and facilitate meaningful change, which has the power to last.
She is recognized as a thought leader on health disparities, racism, cultural diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural competence. According to Barbara, cultural competence is a concept or ideal that is worthy of achieving but cannot be reached because it is a dynamic concept. There is always another person we have not encountered from a culture we are unfamiliar with. So the goal of being culturally competent continues to be something we strive for. As a post-professional occupational therapy doctorate student at the Boston University focusing on social policy, she collaborated with the Executive Director for the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) and conducted a systematic review on cultural diversity, equity, and inclusion, and updated the WFOT official statement document on cultural diversity. She also worked closely with city, county, and state government offices as a community leader in response to leading an Army of Compassion (a diverse group of volunteers that came together to help serve people impacted by Hurricane Katrina in Birmingham, Alabama. Her work regarding Hurricane Katrina and assisting the elderly age at home was recognized by the Mayor of the City of Birmingham, Alabama, the Alabama Governor’s office, and the United States (by Condoleezza Rice) for outstanding community service. The community services recognized included various support and vocational training services designed to address the basic needs of individuals and families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. She also coordinated and directed a special week-long day camp for children, adolescents, and parents displaced by Hurricane Katrina that offered training to help them process the trauma of losing life as they knew it before, loss of their homes, communities, family members, friends, pet, other loved ones, etc.
She is one of nine children and lives in Houston, Texas. She is the proud mother of four adult children (one son and three daughters), thirteen grandchildren (three grandsons and ten granddaughters), and three great-grandchildren (two great-grandsons and one great-granddaughter). She is committed to being a part of the solution in facilitating the healing of the United States and the world from the disease of racism.
Languages
English
Skills
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DEI Consultancy and Professional Management Services
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Public speaking
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Transformational coaching and training program development
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Needs Assessments & Program Management
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SWOT Analysis & Strategic Planning
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Facilitating Individual and Organizational Change
Work experience aside from BP Life Coaching Services
01/22 - Current BP LIFE COACHING SERVICES, LLC
CEO and Managing Member of a woman-owned small business that provides coaching, custom-designed courses, and workshops for personal and professional development, as well as to provide employee training programs for non-profit and for profit businesses.
08/14-12/21 PIMA MEDICAL INSTITUTE HOUSTON, TX
Retired Founding Program Director and Professor for the Occupational Therapy Assistant Program. Responsible for program accreditation, day to day operations, and oversight of students, faculty, and curriculum.
10/13 - 08/14 CANTEX TRANSITIONAL CARE SUGAR LAND, TX
Occupational Therapist serving adults (and their caregivers) requiring short-term rehabilitation in order to return home or go a to new living environment. RehabOptima Documentation System.
4/12 – 10/13 KINDRED HEALTHCARE/ REHAB CARE HOUSTON, TX
Occupational Therapist, as needed and available. Former Operations Consultant: Floating Rehab Program Director. Serving healthcare facilities in the Houston, TX area. Electronic documentation.
9/08- 04/12 and PRN SAVA SENIOR CARE SWEENY, BAY CITY, & HOUSTON, TX Rehab Program Manager for three years (two rural and one urban facilities), then PRN OT. GiftRAP (Renamed RehabOptima a.k.a. ROX) Documentation System.
02/08-09/08 HALLMARK REHABILITATION LEAGUE CITY, CLUTE, ANGLETON, and LAKE JACKSON, TX
Director of Rehab for two facilities, PRN OT for two more Skilled Nursing Facilities. GiftRAP Documentation and Billing System.
01/07 - 02/08 AEGIS THERAPIES - BIRMINGHAM, AL
Director of Rehab for two skilled nursing facilities. GiftRAP Documentation System then PRN OT.
05/07 - 08/08 DILIGENT SERVICES, ARJO SOUTHEAST REGION, USA
Regional Safe Patient Handling Consultant specializing in training clinical staff - all disciplines in hospital and skilled nursing systems, as part of an interdisciplinary training and consulting team tasked with helping facilities establish effective programs to decrease patient and staff injuries.
10/05-01/07 THE CENTER FOR URBAN MISSIONS BIRMINGHAM, AL
Director of Program and Project Development for the Center for Urban Research and Empowerment. Then Consultant for special projects; responsible for community-based programming, such as for programs addressing health involvement, neighborhood involvement, and community outreach. Program Coordinator for regional congregational health and wellness efforts.
O9/94 – 03/08 INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR – BIRMINGHAM, AL
Occupational Therapy Services provided in Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Blount, Walker, DeKalb, and Talladega counties for various healthcare settings: Home health agencies (Gentiva Health Services, Home Care Plus, Baptist, Alacare, Seton), Skilled nursing facilities (Beverly, Royal Oaks, Galleria Oaks, etc.). Adult day treatment centers (Baptist Health System’s Partial Day Treatment Centers at Princeton and Walker County, Golden Care, Shades Valley Active Day Treatment and Rehabilitation), Hospitals [Inpatient and Outpatient Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation] Brookwood Medical Center, HEALTHSOUTH Lakeshore, Baptist Princeton, Baptist Shelby, St. Vincent’s, HEALTHSOUTH Medical Center, HEALTHSOUTH Carraway, Inpatient Mental Health Baptist Princeton, Baptist Montclair, Hospital Outpatient (Baptist Princeton, Baptist Montclair, HEALTHSOUTH Medical Center, St. Vincent’s Bruno Center, Inside and outside sales of medical supplies and equipment for ALLMED Supplies & Equipment. Assisting with JCAHO and CORF survey efforts as needed.
07/04 – 05/05 UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, DIVISION OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
Program Coordinator II for Project Respect/Export Community Outreach Core; a regional community-empowerment research effort in Jefferson and Macon County, Alabama targeting the prevention or management of diabetes and colorectal cancer.
04/97 – June 2004 VICTORS’ MINISTRIES, INC. – ELDERWATCH – BIRMINGHAM, AL
Founder and Patient/Caregiver Advocate. A non-profit faith-based community health outreach ministry thatadvocated and provided gap services to the elderly, homebound adults, and their caregivers.
2010 - present
2010 - present
Education
BRAVE THINKING INSTITUTE
2020 -
Evocative Transformational Life Coaching; DreamBuilder Coach
BOSTON UNIVERSITY SARGENT COLLEGE
2018 -
Post-professional OTD program; doctoral project on the impact of OT practitioner cultural safety and sensitivity on client outcomes.
DEVRY UNIVERSITY KELLER GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
2010 - 2012
Masters Degree in Information Systems Management with a Concentration in Health Information Systems and Applications Management
WORD BIBLE COLLEGE JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
2007 - 2008
Masters Degree in Christian Counseling
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, DETROIT, MICHIGAN
1974 - 1981
Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupational Therapy
NOTE: It took me a little longer to finish because I was a single parent working my way through school.