Teepa L. Snow, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA, is a leading expert on dementia with over 30 years of clinical experience, medical research and trainings. Her company Positive Approach® is an international dementia care training, education and consulting organization that provides= care techniques and training models used by clinicians and families working or living with dementia or other brain changes throughout the world. Teepa’s care strategies and techniques integrate therapeutic approaches that foster positive outcomes, modified environmental supports and expectations that match retained abilities of people living with dementia. She provides direct care in community and wellness centers, day programming sites, home care settings, assisted living and CCRC communities, long term care facilities, out-patient clinics, hospitals and rehabilitation settings.

Teepa teaches about the value of connection, particularly when primary verbal communication and interaction abilities are altered. Her teaching style is extraordinarily unique in that she is able to accurately demonstrate and model the struggle and challenges dementia creates for all parties involved. She is an enlightening, witty, entertaining, and energetic speaker, who is much sought after to present to agencies and organizations across the U.S and Canada.

Teepa has clinical appointments with Duke University’s School of Nursing and UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine. She works with the CMS INTERACT program and is an active member of the US Dementia Action Alliance. Teepa has worked as an OT director in a head injury facility, a clinical specialist in geriatrics for a Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, and a therapist and restorative care coordinator for long term care facilities. She has served as the director of education and lead trainer for the Eastern N.C. Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, as the program director of Durham Technical Community College’s OTA program, as an interdisciplinary team member and clinical associate professor at UNC-CH School of Medicine’s Program on Aging, and as a coordinator and care manager for CAP Medicaid waiver services in NC.

Teepa has served in a wide variety of leadership and advisory positions in professional organizations at both state and national levels, including the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, AOTA, and NBCOT.

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial:  Teepa Snow is in private practice.  She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. 

Non-financial:  Teepa Snow is a member of the NC Coalition for Long Term Care Enhancement; American Occupational Therapy Association; North Carolina Occupational Therapy Association; North Carolina Assisted Living Association; and Friends of Residents in Long Term Care.