Duke Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program Director
Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy and Theological Ethics
Occupational Therapy Doctorate Division, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine
The Divinity School at Duke University
Faculty Associate, Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine
sarah.j.barton@duke.edu
Sarah Jean Barton is the Program Director of the Duke Occupational Therapy Doctorate and serves at Duke as a dually appointed faculty member in the School of Medicine and the Divinity School. She has been an occupational therapist for over a decade with a board certification in pediatrics. As both an occupational therapist and theologian, she teaches and researches at the intersections of disability and theology, bioethics, and higher education. She has published and presented in a variety of interdisciplinary contexts on issues related to disability ethics, spirituality and religion in clinical practice, and accessibility in health professions education. In her 2022 book with Baylor University Press, Becoming the Baptized Body: Disability and the Practice of Christian Community, she utilized a participatory and inclusive research approach to highlight the perspectives and stories of collaborators with intellectual disabilities.
Dr. Barton currently teaches a seminar on disability bioethics as part of the Moral Movements in Medicine interprofessional elective, helps facilitate narrative medicine offerings at Duke, and serves as a consultant for trainees in the clinical ethics fellowship. She is a Fellow of Duke AHEAD.